RE:Mending Strands
by Cresciela
Summary: "Face it: you're just empty inside, and you have no idea how to cope with it except putting on that disgusting smile of yours." "Then, what about you?" She dug a finger deep at his chest,"You're just a coward who only knows how to run away-who are you to judge me?" A story about a girl trying to find herself while a boy attempts to take back what is his.
1. one sky, one destiny

Hello guys, you may be wondering what is happening (my older readers at least) when you see me upload a story with a very similar-almost identical-title to my first story. Guess what-I'm rewriting it! There are many reasons as to why I'm rewriting it.

One is because I am not satisfied with the way I wrote it. I did not plan it well, and I also did not have the best writing skills back then either (nor the best proofreading skills). Because I found the plot very interesting though, I wanted to remake it into something even more interesting (I'm not sure if I'll even be successful, but we would have to find out, right?).

The second reason is that I merely do not have enough time to write fanfic anymore. I'm super busy with life as it is! By rewriting a story, it'll take a lot less effort for me to jot things down, since I already know the general pathway of how the story will unfold (lmao I mean, I try to convince myself of this, but let's be honest here-I'm scared this is gonna a mess as well). As for my other stories, they will be put on hold once more because again I do not have the time. I am sorry if I disappoint any of you *sad face*

All the details aside, I really want to make my first story better and even more enjoyable, so old readers and new, please enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters except plot!**

* * *

"_Here it goes, folks! Daybreak Town has finally finished building their own Keyblade arena, making it the last of the six worlds to finally be qualified to participate in the Keyblade Wars this year! Who knows, they might set a record and take the gold medal from Destiny Island's Ven—"_

_ Bzz!_

A mere press of a button, and the TV was instantly turned off as the remote was flung lazily back onto the sofa.

"There's nothing interesting on TV either, Mom. Test your luck somewhere else," Kairi yelled from the living room as she whipped out her phone. Her mini-hunt for an interesting TV program for her mother proved useless; nothing seemed to be entertaining on it anymore. It was all about what you could find on the internet nowadays. "Although I know an absolutely _awesome_ site where you can watch a bunch of dramas if you want to invest."

"Kairi, dear, I've seen what those have turned you into," Tifa could be heard chuckling underneath the sound of running water of the sink. "You think I don't know when you've stayed up all night and emerge in the morning looking like a zombie?"

"Totally not true," Kairi snorted, even though her mother caught her red-handed. "I am a hardworking student who slaves at the night with homework. Dramas? What is this that you speak of?"

"If your sister had said those words, I would've believed it, but since it's coming from you, I don't."

Kairi rolled her eyes at the statement, even if it was meant to be teasing. _Of course._

As if summoned, Namine's footsteps were heard clambering downstairs. Her usual book of the week was held snuggly against her chest as she peeked her head into the kitchen and then into the living room. Spotting Kairi without her usual laptop with the countless amounts of tabs on her browser, Namine rose an eyebrow and sat herself on the sofa.

"How rare," Namine chuckled as she settled the book down by her side. "Ran out of things to do? The laptop is nowhere to be seen."

"Hanging out with a couple of friends soon," Kairi said with a roll of her eyes. "You make it sound like I'm addicted to it or something."

Namine rose an eyebrow. "We share the same room."

"Your point?"

It was Namine's turn to roll her eyes when she saw how Kairi was just messing with her as she tried not to laugh. Namine simply grabbed her book and flipped to the page where she left off last.

"Excited for college next week?" At the mention of college, Kairi visibly winced, as if struck with a needle. Giving her younger twin sister a look, Kairi could never understand how Namine could still maintain a conversation while reading a book. That was just how big her brain was.

"Excited," Kairi deadpanned. "Who knew I would get into the same college as you, Ms. Nerdy-McGee."

Namine frowned. "You make it seem as if you don't deserve to go to Twilight University."

"Basically," was all Kairi gave as a response before she grabbed a lollipop from the table and unwrapped with a quick swipe. She stood up and walked towards the front door. "Welp, I'll see you later. I'm heading out."

"See you," Namine said with a weak smile.

"Mom, I'm going!"

"Don't be out too late!"

Two hours later, and Kairi regretted her choice about leaving the house.

"I'm _really_ going to miss you, Kairi!"

Kairi forced a fake smile as she looked at her "dear" high school mate Rikku. She also tried to look like she appreciated the gigantic bear hug she and Paine gave her as she weakly returned the hug.

"I'll miss you too."

"You _have_ to tell me all about Twilight Town! Must be so exciting to go to such a big place. I'm so jealous; we're just stuck here on the islands."

"I feel the opposite, girl," Kairi laughed. "I want to stay here. Nothing beats Destiny Island beaches."

"Then why did you choose Twilight Town?" Paine asked, and that hit a spot inside Kairi. "No, I get why you would want to—Twilight University is a _big_ one. But you don't seem excited."

"Pfft, of course, I'm excited!" Kairi could feel her social energy just draining away the longer her high school mates continued to drag out their goodbyes. "It's just the nervousness, since I'm going to such a renowned school, you know."

"Namine's going too, right? That was so expected, but I was surprised when you got in too!" Rikku said cheerfully. "Who knew you were a smarty! Good for you, Kairi."

"Haha, is that supposed to be a compliment?" Kairi laughed heartily.

_Get me out of here._

"Good to see you doing well now," Paine encouraged, giving Kairi a pat on the shoulder. "We'll meet up during winter break? Make sure to give us the updates about how life as a city girl's like."

Kairi let out another weak laugh. "Of course. Do well in college guys."

After another somewhat-tearful goodbye, Kairi finally departed from the two and heaved a huge sigh as she got back inside her car. She turned on the engine, but settled her hands back on her lap for a second as she collected her thoughts. She tried her hardest to find some sentimental value behind the outing she just went with her friends. She wasn't going to see them for a long time. They were friends since freshman year of high school. Now she was going to be an entire World away from them.

_Nope._

She felt nothing.

Kairi sighed before reversing out the parking lot and made her way back home.

_Maybe college will be different._

But deep down, Kairi didn't believe that.

~.~.~

"Good luck you two! Make sure you guys eat an actual meal and not go to the instant things. Only go to those things during desperate times, okay? If you ever need help cooking, you can call me and I'll gladly—"

"Mom, we know, we've heard this so many times," Kairi cut in the middle of her mother's rant right before they boarded the plane. She smiled at her dear mother and gave her a one-armed hug while her other hand clasped the handle of her carry-on luggage. Her twin sister joined as well, and both hoped Tifa wouldn't start bawling her eyes off in the middle of the airport. Even their stone-faced father Cloud managed a small smile as he watched his two little girls ready to go their own ways in life.

"Namine, make sure you watch over your sister. I worry for both of you, but I'm not gonna lie when I say I'm definitely more worried about dear Kairi over here."

Namine laughed nervously as Kairi simply rolled her eyes.

"Mom, I'm the older sibling here."

"By only twenty minutes. Not much older sisterly-authority here," Tifa shot back. Kairi didn't want to argue with her mother at this time of departing, so she held it in and flashed a smile.

"Don't worry. I won't cause too much trouble with Namine."

After another heartfelt family hug, Kairi and Namine finally boarded the plane and loaded their carry-ons above their heads before sitting in their designated seats. Kairi was ready to just sleep through the entire five-hour plane trip—she was never a big fan of long travels. Just when she settled her elbow on the armrest and closed her eyes for a second to knock out, Namine's voice peeped out.

"Sorry."

Kairi lazily opened one eye to glance at her sister. "For what?"

"I know you don't like it when, you know, Mom's like that and—"

"Nothing you need to apologize for," Kairi mumbled. She shifted in her seat, crossed her arms, and heaved a small sigh. Kairi hated it whenever she was reminded of the stark differences. One twin had beautiful blonde hair while the other had strange red hair that was apparently inherited from the great-great grandmother. One twin was smart and capable while the other was apparently lazy and irresponsible. One twin was ladylike while the other was a tomboy. One twin was just _better_ while the other one was the inferior. The list could go on—Kairi had a lot more things to say—but it didn't matter.

She was used to it—this differential treatment.

_And just when I thought things would be different in college._

"Are you sure?" Namine asked again, genuinely worried.

Kairi forced a small assuring smile. She didn't like it when her sister worried though.

"Yeah. Just nervous. And I hate flights, so I'm going to sleep the whole thing off." Kairi shot a look at the book in her sister's hand. "Don't get a headache reading that boring thing."

"Boring," Namine mock-scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, go to sleep."

"Will do."

~.~.~

_"Here it goes, folks! Daybreak Town has finally finished building their own Keyblade arena, making it the last of the six worlds to finally be qualified to participate in the Keyblade Wars this year! Who knows, they might set a record and take the gold medal from Destiny Island's Ven—"_

One slam of the laptop, and the news broadcast is ceased.

"Gotta be kidding me," Sora muttered as he furiously waved a hand at his face to somehow calm himself down. "Let's not get angry here, Sora Hikari. We don't get angry around here." He heaved another sigh, and just like that, he was over it—at least, for now. With one ring of his phone, his thoughts directed themselves to a much happier place.

"Sora, just how _long_ will you stay in your apartment? Class is about to start in a few days. Our summer vacation is coming to an end!"

"Riku, you make it sound like you're entering college for the first time."

"Let's not remind ourselves of how old we are," came the immediate deadpanned-response. "So let's get out of our roofs here."

"Dude, we've been going out for three days straig—"

"Sora-a-a-a!" Riku's whining entered full blast, and it took Sora all he could to just not end the call right there and then.

"Riku-u-u-u…" Sora mocked back.

"Please?"

"…"

"C'mon."

"…"

And just like that, Sora found himself changing his clothes and leaving his apartment to humor Riku with his "last days of summer vacation."

Before he left his house entirely, his eyes landed themselves on a framed picture by the counter left forgotten. Sora sighed as he realized what the picture was of.

"I really need to start cleaning up this place," Sora muttered to himself as he walked over to the counter. With a sweep of his hand, he knocked the picture down face-first and shut the door of his apartment.

~.~.~

The moment the twins touched their feet on Twilight Town, Kairi was eager to just get a taxi over to the college, unpack her bags, and just laze in her newfound dorm. The flight indeed tired her out greatly, even when it was only three o'clock in the afternoon.

_But wait, I should go take a look around the place._ Kairi frowned to herself as they put all their things inside a convenient taxi. That was the least she could do for coming to a new place, no matter how reluctant she was. Trapped in her thoughts, she didn't notice how her sister was struggling to say something when they got inside the taxi.

"Hey, Kairi, do you want to—"

"Hm, I think I'll go skateboarding around to check out the area," Kairi hummed. She had not heard Namine's quiet voice. Namine simply smiled and nodded.

"That sounds refreshing since it's the summer. It's quite colder around here, but still hot. Make sure not to fall!"

"Of course, of course." Kairi sighed, but not because she was tired.

Kairi was quick to take out her skateboard once she settled into her apartment. She thought about going over and checking how Namine's dorm looked since they were in separate buildings that were a ten-minute walk away from each other, but thought against it since she could do that any time.

_Time to see what you're all about, Twilight Town._

Skateboarding was obviously not the most girlish thing to do, but Kairi couldn't help but enjoy how the wind blew against her face and how she seemed to be faster than everything around her. On her skateboard, she could feel like she was free—that she was unrestrained and loose. There wasn't anything that could stop her, nothing to just grab her and pull her off as easily. She could run, run faster than anyone.

She was free.

Kairi picked it up back in high school when her grandmother gave it as a gift for her birthday. Her parents obviously voiced their complaints as to how a girl could ride such a thing, but one of the most memorable things she could remember that day was how her grandmother winked at her by the side as if they were putting their two heads together inside a secret.

_It's okay_, was what her grandmother seemed to say.

Kairi really missed her grandma. She really did.

_Twilight Town is as great as the pictures make it to be…_

Her thoughts removed themselves from her grandmother to how grand the city was. _They should really rename the place._ The word "town" made it seem like a small, cozy, and quiet place. Kairi can gladly verify that that was not the case at all. Twilight Town was perhaps the most developed World out of them all. With cutting-edge technology, famous institutions, and sky-reaching and glass-windowed skyscrapers, Twilight Town made Destiny Island feel like a child. Destiny Island palm trees had nothing against the place.

Never in Kairi's life would she ever imagine herself actually being at this place, much less attend school here. Things around here were expensive—it took big funds just to have a vacation here. The last time she stepped foot in Twilight Town was when she was a little middle schooler on vacation with her family. It had only been a couple of years since then, and Twilight Town already seemed like a different place. _This city grows way too fast._

Everything was great about this city, except the sidewalks—there were _way_ too many people. Skateboarding was not as enjoyable since Kairi had to actually go a bit slower so that she could avoid the people crowding the place. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the greatest either. _Skateboarding was a mistake. _Who was the one who said Twilight Town was the best place to skateboard? _I got lied to._

It wasn't until she hit an area with a slight decline when the people decreased—it surprised Kairi how quick she reached a desolate place—allowing her to be a bit more flexible. Getting back to her usual groove—the idea of looking around Twilight Town quickly died—Kairi focused more on her riding.

_College will be better_, Kairi thought to herself.

_I'll start a new way of living._

_ I'll do the things I want to do._

_ I'll do my best._

_ I'll be me._

Yes, she came here with a purpose, and she was going to fulfill it—even if she went to the same college as her sister.

_It's going to be different this time. It will be._

The more Kairi thought about these thoughts, the more she felt like she could actually believe in them. If she were to just repeat them like a mantra, maybe these words would actually become true.

This hope quickly died when Namine's warning flew out the window real quick. Rounding the corner, she would not have expected anything to be right at the edge and out of her sight. The moment two figures flashed in front of her eyes, her heart leaped out of her throat as she allowed her natural instincts to take over. She hopped off her skateboard, not caring about what would happen to it for a split second. However, the speed of her descent was too great; not only could she not find flat footing, but she also rammed straight into the person.

And just like that, she found herself on the floor along with the person she ran into.

"Fuck," she cursed the moment she got up on all fours. She struggled to sit up as she hissed at the pain; the skin of her palms ripped while her jeans adorned new and unfashionable holes. When she looked to see who she bumped into, she was not thrilled to see someone also suffering the same fate as her just two feet away.

"Dude, Sora, are you okay?"

Kairi watched as a silver-haired guy leaned down to his friend Sora. Sora got up just like her. However, Kairi paled when his wrist looked a bit _nonlinear_.

"I'm fine," the spiky-haired young man gruffly said. However, the huge streak of pain that shot across his face when he tried to move his hand was nothing indicative of being "fine." Right when she was about to apologize, another realization struck her—her skateboard.

"No, no, no," she muttered under her breath. She crawled on the floor for a little bit before she forced herself up. _Where did it go?_ Kairi turned white when she saw it across the street, bent and crooked as it lay on the side of the street.

"Excuse me, are you alright?"

Kairi whipped her eyes back towards the silver-haired. His concern had shifted from his friend to her. He eyed her bloody shins and bloody knees, a grimaced well formed on his face. When she looked at Sora, she remembered how much more severe a messed-up wrist was compared to a messed-up skateboard.

"I'm so sorry, I was distracted," Kairi stammered, already imagining the bills that would bless her entrance to college. She watched as Sora slowly made his way up and tried to feel his wrist with his other hand, only to let out an audible sound of pain.

"I would like to say that it's okay, but I would be lying," Sora sighed. He glanced at her knees and hands—at least he didn't do a tumble like her. His eyes then went back to his now irregularly-shaped wrist and wondered what the hell he was going to do with it. _Where's the closest hospital?_ He eyed her knees and hands again.

"I'm so sorry," Kairi repeated, watching as the wrist turned purple and swollen. He must've broken his fall pretty hard for it to become that way. "Is there anything you would like me to do or—"

"It's fine," he coldly interrupted. Kairi set her jaw; she didn't like the way he sounded. "You should worry more about yourself," he then glanced at the broken contraption, "and your skateboard over there before it gets even more destroyed."

"If you insist," Kairi replied in the same manner. If he didn't want her to worry about it anymore, then she will gladly leave; it would give her less of a responsibility for his wrist. Sora and Riku watched as she turned around went across the entire sidewalk to go fetch her skateboard that lay cold on the street. Riku nervously watched the way she limped and nudged Sora with an elbow.

"Friend, I don't think it would be nice of us to just let her walk back to wherever she came from," Riku said, feeling bad for the redhead. "She's all bruised up and cut. I don't think she can ride that skateboard either."

"I like how you're worried about her when I'm stuck here with a wrist that is probably sprained—or broken, actually." Sora sighed as he watched the redhead go off on her own.

"I know you just didn't want her to worry, but you could've it said it in a nicer way, pal," Riku continued to speak, this time adding a disapproving nod. "Now she's off and about on her own."

Sora could feel his eye twitch at how Riku was trying to probe him for the guilt. Unfortunately, it was working.

Kairi sighed as she picked up her skateboard despite her scraped hands. Her precious gift from her grandmother—destroyed on the first day she stepped foot to enter her new life. She wondered whether or not this was an omen and that the skies were telling her that her hopes and dreams were just going to be fruitless. She flipped her skateboard around for another look and sighed again. _At least it looks fixable at a shop._

A little part of her wanted to turn around and see if the spiky-haired guy was really alright, but reminding herself of how—dare she say it—rude he was, she didn't want to. However, she didn't have to.

Just when she was about to just go on her way and perhaps limp her way back to campus, a hand wrapped itself at the crook of her elbow.

"C'mon, let's not walk around bleeding."

Kairi immediately shook the hand off and turned around to see Sora with an unamused look.

"Don't touch me so casually," was the first thing she blurted out. "What do you want? Did you change your mind about my offer for help?"

"Please, what can you even do about it?" Sora retorted back. With his healthy hand, he jerked a thumb towards a general direction. "I think we both need a hospital check-up, and I think it would be faster and less painful to go by car than walking."

"No, thank you," Kairi deadpanned. She was not getting inside a car with two strangers, even if her blood trailed behind her with every footstep she took. Plus, this Sora guy did not seem to be good news with the way he talked to her so roughly—the least he could do was be more polite about it. _Then again, I was the one who rode recklessly on foreign streets._ "I'm fine. Really. I think you're in a worse position than me, so I think _you _better get going."

The last thing Kairi expected him to ever do was hand her his wallet and his keys. Rather, they were _thrown_ at her. She stupidly played hot potato with both of the items before looking at him, trying her best not to shoot him the most ludicrous stare she could muster.

"You drive _and_ you get to keep my wallet, how about it?"

"Excuse me?"

Sora darted his eyes towards his probably-broken wrist and raised an eyebrow. "I can't drive."

"And?"

"I need to go to the hospital."

Kairi looked behind him to stare at Riku, who was just watching the entire thing in amusement. Before she could open her mouth to say anything back, he answered her curiosity for her. "I don't trust him with my car."

"And you trust me?"

"No, considering how your skateboarding skills are horrible."

"Then—"

"You want to go to the hospital or not?"

The two entered a stare-down, and it took Kairi way too long to realize how this strange young man was just trying to get her to go to the hospital with them despite being strangers.

_Interesting._

However, she shoved him back his wallet and his keys. He successfully grabbed his keys, but he hopelessly dropped the wallet; she had forgotten about his injured hand. However, his silver-haired friend was already by his side ready to pick it up.

"Where's your car?" was the only thing Kairi said.

"The parking lot over there," Sora answered coolly, using his head to signal towards the right direction. Without another word, Kairi went ahead with her skateboard, leaving the two men to eat her dust.

"That was an interesting way to get her to trust you," Riku sniggered. "Give her your everything, why don't you?"

"And this was an interesting way to end my summer vacation, huh?" Sora snorted, blaming Riku entirely for his broken wrist. It was Riku's turn to get the keys shoved to his chest. "Now drive."

* * *

Intro and chapter 1 done! Tell me what you guys think c: Hopefully I will update as often as I can!

-Cresciela


	2. you only live one moment once

At the hospital, Kairi simply got her wounds disinfected and bandaged, but as for Sora, he came out with a hulking cast at his hand. Kairi bit her bottom lip slightly; only now did the full sense of responsibility hit her. She should be glad that he wasn't insisting on her paying the bills, or else her parents would give her a mouthful. She then mentally groaned; it was legit less than three hours since she came to Twilight Town and she already got herself in some sort of trouble. If Namine saw her bandaged self, she wasn't sure whether or not her sister would rat her out.

_She better not._

"Done daydreaming?"  
Kairi sat up from her seat when Sora finished up a couple of documents. It had been awkward—awkward waiting with his friend that is. The two had said nothing to each other as they waited for Sora to come out, which was expected—there was nothing to say anyway. Out of politeness—and it was the least she could do—Kairi stayed to see the end of the process. Considering how she absolutely did not know the way back either, a ride back to campus would've been nice as well.

"Sora, how is it?" Riku asked, concerned at the way his friend's hand was bandaged quite well. "What did they say about it?"

"Broken, obviously," Sora bluntly stated. He waved his cast around before heaving a large sigh. "It'll take two months for it to heal fully. What a way to start the quarter."

"Sorry," Kairi said once more. She eyed whether or not it was his right hand or his left hand, only to be devastated that it was his right. Unless he was left-handed, which probably wasn't the case since she clearly saw him struggle to sign the papers, he was basically handicapped for the entirety of the quarter. Mentally scolding herself, Kairi hoped he'll somehow manage on his own so that at least her guilt could be subdued.

"It's whatever," Sora said once more. It didn't rub Kairi the right way with how he sounded very insincere with his responses. It would've been nice if he could at least sound a little bit less grumpier to make her feel less bad. Kairi reminded herself that it didn't matter—within a couple of minutes, she would get back on campus and never see the guy's face again.

"Alright, so we ready to go?" Riku announced as he stood up from his seat as well. He swung Sora's keys around on his finger, only to almost fling them across the room. Raising an eyebrow at his attempt to look cool, Sora said nothing as he walked past the automatic double doors. The two quickly followed behind him.

"So where are you heading…" Riku left his tone hanging. Kairi didn't catch how he was hinting towards her name until he looked at her expectedly through the rearview mirror.

"Twilight University, please, if that's okay," she answered, purposely not giving them her name. "Or somewhere near there. Anywhere's convenient."

"Oh, Twilight University? Hey, we also—"

_Ring, ring, ring!_

Sora's phone rang through the car's speakers, effectively interrupting Riku in the middle of his sentence.

"Oh, it's Axel. Do you want to pick it up?" Riku asked, hovering a finger over the touchscreen of the car. "Although I'm not sure whether or not you want to pick up his call when someone's in—"

"If you already know the consequences, then don't pick it up," Sora simply responded, gladly pressing the hang-up button. Just like that, Sora ignored his friend's call. It made Kairi curious as to why they couldn't pick it up if she was there.

Once they reached Twilight University, Kairi gladly made her quick escape; she didn't want to be in a stranger's car any longer.

"Uh, I'm sorry," Kairi said again once she stepped out of the car with her bent skateboard. However, she knew it was getting old with the way Sora gave her another stone-cold look through the window. He rolled down the window and shook his head.

"Just… ride better," was all he offered.

It took three strikes for Kairi to confidently say that this guy definitely got on her nerves. _It's okay, you won't see him again. _She flashed the fakest smile she could possibly muster. Of course, this irked Sora slightly.

"Of course. I will watch out next time," she said sweetly before she slammed the door of his car. She made sure that it wasn't too hard—she didn't want car bills to hang over her head either. "Thanks for the ride, bye."

"See you around," Riku hollered before he turned out of the driveway and sped off. Kairi's smile instantly dropped as she turned around and headed back.

"'See you around'?" she scoffed to herself. "You won't be seeing me anywhere, buddy."

Meanwhile in the car, Sora busied himself with his phone while Riku went to drive himself back home. He glanced over at Sora, who even with a broken wrist didn't seem fazed that such an unfortunate event happened. If Riku didn't see the cast on his hand when he came out of the ER, he would've believed that Sora was a-okay despite the nasty fall he witnessed. A trip that was supposed to satiate Riku's craving for pasta became a homerun for Sora's wrist.

"Are you going to be okay driving yourself back home with one hand?" he asked out of concern. Sora nodded, eyes never leaving his phone.

"You live like only five minutes away anyway through neighborhood streets. I'll manage," Sora assured. He sighed for probably the nth time that day as he lifted up his wrist to examine once more. "I do wonder what I'm going to do with this though. Note taking is going to be horrible." Then a realization hit him. "Wait, worse—I can't program."

"You can't program _efficiently_," Riku corrected. "Just go ham on the keyboard with your left hand over here. I'm sure you can at least achieve two-thirds of your original speed knowing you. You don't procrastinate either, so I doubt you'll have to race against time anyway."

"Haha, you're so funny," Sora said snarkily. "If not for your goddamn pasta craving, I swear."

"I'm sorry, alright? You make it sound like I was the cause of this whole entire thing. Was I the one flying off my skateboard, hm?" Then Riku decided to add a side note. "That girl truly was interesting though. And cute. Hey, do you think we'll see her around?"

"It's a large campus, I doubt you'll spot that freshman around any time soon," Sora shut him down. "Plus, it doesn't seem like she's willing to be cordial with you."

"Freshman?"

"You can obviously tell with the way she kept staring through the window when we drove through downtown," Sora simply answered. "Doesn't look like she's been in Twilight Town for a whole lot of time yet."

"I'll definitely spot her," Riku said with a shake of his head. "No one could miss fiery red hair like that."

Sora shrugged. "I like blonde better. Or black."

"You're boring."

"Whatever."

When Riku reached his apartment, Sora scooted over to the driver's seat and made his way back home with his questionable one-handed driving. Doing the u-turn to enter his apartment complex almost resulted in him ramming straight into a parked car by the sidewalk.

"Moogles," he muttered under his breath while he awkwardly fumbled to get his keys out of the socket with his left hand. When he got out of the car, he did a casual glance through the windows and noticed something interesting at the back seat. He squinted his eyes to somehow get a clearer look before he opened the door and poked his head in.

"You gotta be kidding me," Sora sighed.

On the backseat was Kairi's college ID card, laying forgotten and temporarily ownerless.

~.~.~

Namine was not happy when she saw Kairi all bandaged up at the knees and hands. When the two met up to explore the school for a little bit during Week 0 before the freshman commencement the day after Kairi did a little tumble down the sidewalk, the band-aids were the first thing Namine noticed about Kairi's appearance.

"Um, where did you get those from?" the blonde immediately interrogated. They hadn't even left the front of Kairi's dorm yet when Namine went in for the kill. Kairi sighed mentally at how her sister did not give her a breather about it for even a second.

"I tripped," was all Kairi offered. Namine's eyes examined the amount of bandaging and knew that it wasn't just a simple trip.

"What did you even do yesterday to—you went skateboarding yesterday." Kairi didn't understand why her sister even bothered to ask when she could figure it out with that quick calculating mind of hers. "Kairi, I thought you would be more care—"

"Look, Namine, I'm not gonna be here for another lecture," Kairi coldly interrupted. She already had enough at home; she didn't come to college for round two. At the sound of Kairi's biting tone, Namine instantly shut her mouth, and Kairi instantly felt bad. Kairi mentally calmed herself down and offered a weak smile. "Accidents happen. Yesterday was no exception."

"... Be careful next time."

"Yeah."

And with that, Kairi's accident had to be forgotten and untouched.

As they explored the campus, Kairi was glad she didn't bring a bike. Classes were known to be far away from each other, but the hills that kept going up and down before her eyes did not look promising—she'd rather walk than kill her thighs. Namine by her side couldn't help but become enamoured by the whole place. Kairi didn't blame her; after all, this was her dream school.

"The pictures don't do this beautiful campus justice," Namine couldn't help but show her appreciation. Kairi on the other hand found the pictures more pleasing since more effort was probably put behind them for public view. Obviously, Namine appreciated natural scenes more than Kairi.

The commencement was held at a very huge stadium with fake grass littering the entire stretch. As Kairi and Namine walked with the crowd towards the entrance where they scanned everyone's ID card for access, it was then that Kairi realized that it was happening, that she was actually at one of the best colleges known across the Worlds. The people that flooded the pathway towards the entrance probably felt the same thing; Kairi could literally hear and _feel_ the excitement that radiated off of everyone. Kairi knew about the college struggles and the complaints she heard from her upperclassmen, but she didn't care about any of that at the current moment. No, today, she was going to be proud of herself for making it this far because it was okay to feel proud. _You deserved it, Kairi._

"Oh yeah, they scan your ID at the entrance to make sure you're a freshman. Let's get it out," Namine advised when they approached and joined the quickly moving lines. At the mention of ID cards, a small hint of panic started to touch Kairi's senses.

"I do have it, right?" she muttered to herself as she began to check her pockets. When she discovered that it was not on her, her brain instantly did a scan through her day only to meet with an unfortunate realization—she had not seen her ID card since yesterday when she moved in. She didn't see it on her desk nor did she ever recall putting it inside her bag. It was then that she narrowed it down to the moment of the accident.

"What's wrong, Kairi?" Namine asked. She saw the way her older twin sister patted her entire body down. "You can't find your ID card?"

"Yeah, it's not on here. Are you kidding me? Do you think they'll just let me in if I said I'm a freshman?"

"You can try. They can't be too strict," Namine offered. "I'm pretty sure they'll understand. It's pretty hectic after all."

"Don't worry, you don't have to do that."

Kairi and Namine were both surprised at how close the voice sounded—it was as if the person was talking to them. To confirm if that was the case, the twins turned around to see said person. Kairi swore her eyes were playing tricks on her when she saw who it was.

Standing by the side away from the continuous moving crowd of people was the spiky-haired guy Kairi broke the wrist of yesterday. As if to painfully remind her about the incident, his cast stood blaringly white underneath the sunlight. With the way he was standing, it seemed like he had been there waiting for something—waiting for her.

"Why are you—" Kairi attempted to question him, but she was cut short when he interrupted her once more.

"At least get out of the way before you get stampeded," he deadpanned, referring to the wave of excited freshmen. Both Kairi and Namine heeded his words and pulled themselves to the side where he stood. A huge sigh escaped his lips as if the entire day had been a drag for him. Kairi ran through the reasons as to why he was standing in front of her even when she swore upon herself that she was never going to see such a face ever again. Could he had been a stalker? She knew it was a mistake to tell him her destination yesterday. Maybe he came to exact revenge on her. She should've asked him to drop her somewhere near, not directly at the college. She knew she shouldn't have trusted him, she knew—

"How come I can tell you're having weird thoughts right now just by the look on your face?" Sora said with a roll of his eyes. Without further ado, Sora fished out a sight for sore eyes out of his pocket.

"My ID card…" Kairi swiped it out of his hands, and Sora gladly let her have it. "How did you—"

"You left it in my car, Sherlock," Sora cut in once more. Kairi really didn't like how he kept walking over her speech and kicking her complete sentences out the open window. "Let's not keep such an important thing behind those flimsy pockets of yours; it slips right out."

"I don't need a guy to lecture me about my clothes," Kairi hissed, forgetting the fact that her sister was watching with curious interest at the interaction. At the attacking statement, Sora quickly raised his left hand in mock defense.

"Hold it there, buddy, who ever said I was insulting your clothes. I'm just saying—"

"And I'm just saying how suspicious you look right now." It was Kairi's turn to interrupt him; he needed a good ol' taste of his own medicine. "How did you know to find me here? I won't be afraid to report anything suspicious."

Sora couldn't believe what his ears were hearing right now as he stared at the crazy redhead. He turned his head to the side slightly and let out a small chuckle of disbelief; it was interestingly his first time to be ever accused for some sort of stalker. What he took more offense to, however, was the fact that this chick didn't even take the time to consider the possibility that he could've been a student here as well. Hell, he had been waiting, rooted in his spot just to find a redhead to return a certain piece of ID to. And just when he decided to do a good deed...

"Do I look that old to you?" He gestured at his face with his left once more. He wouldn't be surprised if his left arm had more muscle mass by the time the two months were up. "I swear you and I look almost the same age here."

"What are you talking about?"

Sora simply took out his wallet, flipped it open, and slid his ID card out with a thumb. He hopelessly dropped it—he accepted his fate of dropping many things for the next two months—since he couldn't gracefully balance his wallet in one hand, but he quickly stooped down to pick his card up. Then, he flashed it to her. Kairi brought her head closer to scrutinize the piece of identification.

_Sora Hikari_.

It was the same Twilight University ID card that she had.

_Oh._

Sora raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to accuse him of more nonsensical things. Kairi's mouth was held slightly agape not because it was a surprise, but because she was starting to feel the familiar sense of burning embarrassment.

"Interesting train of thought you got there in your noggin," Sora smirked. He put away his ID card and slipped his wallet back into his pocket. He did so by meticulously holding his wallet in his injured hand as if to show off the cast to her to remind her of what wrong she did to him yesterday. Namine frowned as she looked between Sora and Kairi. She first questioned who this random guy was, but then she noticed the fresh looking cast he had on his right hand. Then she narrowed her eyes for a little bit before she directed them towards Kairi's bandages on her hands and her knees. Then she observed the smug look on Sora's face and her twin sister's sudden quietness. Kairi could literally feel her sister just putting all the pieces together next to her.

To make matters worse for Kairi, Sora confirmed Namine's suspicion. "You know, I think it's been well overdue, a sincere 'thank you,' considering how I've driven you to a hospital _and _waited here to personally deliver you your ID."

"Haha, thank you very much," Kairi forced a wide smile for him, which caught him off guard again. _That's the fakest smile I've ever seen._ But because it was so fake, it looked real. "Sorry, I was just surprised to see you here again."

Deep down, Kairi was still suspicious of him. What was his intent in personally delivering her ID card to her? It was too much of a hassle to go through just for the sake of a stranger. There had to be a strong motive for the guy to even scan the gigantic entering class of freshmen, and it spooked Kairi because she could not think of any possible reason why. _Too suspicious, too suspicious._

"I can't stand your accusing glare any longer. See ya later, freshman. Have fun at commencement," Sora excused himself. Whether she liked it or not, he could read right through her, which made the smile on her face evaporate immediately.

"Wait, why did you come?" Kairi asked, not wanting him to go until he explained himself. She wouldn't be able to rest easy until she knew. Why did such a stranger help her? First, he let her go on the whole skateboard fiasco, and now he went out of his way to deliver her ID for her. Just why?

Sora paused in his footsteps at her exclamation and turned half-back around. His eyebrow raised again just by the slightest in question, surprised that she still dared to interrogate him. However, he figured that it was all in good reason.

"I've been at this school long enough to not appreciate it as much anymore," he sighed. He looked at all the young freshmen who were so eager to make their way towards the stadium, just like he did two years ago when he was a freshman. It felt like stepping into a new world, a whole new dimension—even if it was just a temporary delusion before the skin of childhood was shed and the new shell of adulthood emerged. For the first time ever since their meeting, Kairi saw the guy smile—a small, genuine smile—as he looked towards the flooding stadium. "My school spirit is close to dead for this university, so I honestly don't see the point of going to anymore of these school events, but that doesn't mean you have to feel the same—at least for now."

"What does that mean?" Kairi continued to ask, not too sure of what his point was. Sora simply laughed before turning back around to go on his way. He lifted his left hand up as a sign of goodbye.

"Enjoy your days as an incoming freshman. You can only go to commencement once in your undergrad life. After all, it's a day just for you guys. And don't worry, you weren't hard to spot. There's no one here with red hair like yours."

In response to this, out of all the things Kairi could've said, she said the most ironic thing out of this whole entire conversation.

"Wait, you're not a freshman?" At this, Sora really laughed.

"What, now I suddenly look like one to you?" Then he turned around for the second time and held up two fingers. "Two. I'm two years your senior. I'll see you around, _Kairi_. Although, you probably won't, but I'm sure that's mighty fine for you."

And with that, Sora did not humor her anymore and went on his way, leaving Kairi to just watch his back quickly shrink from her view.

_Sora Hikari._

Kairi found him quite interesting, but it didn't matter because now they really won't see each other ever again.

* * *

Chapter 2! Nothing much except things are going a bit slow (?) I don't know, I can't read my own story and judge xD Really am trying to build things up here so that later things will be explained c: As you can see (my old readers), things are slightly different, so don't be surprised if it doesn't resemble the old version as much as you thought it would!

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter~~ Peace.


	3. wonders of genetics

"... And what happened here?"

Sora ignored the gazes of Axel and Hayner on his cast as he awkwardly typed on his laptop with only one hand. Currently, they were in Axel's on-campus apartment hanging out after the first class of the quarter. Axel was one of Sora's buddies back in high school while Hayner was someone the crew met in college. Riku knew Sora way longer at a time that stretched from elementary school until now. Sora was much more closer to Riku than anybody else, however. Axel was cool and all, but he knew it was difficult for him—difficult to split his time between two groups.

_Geez. _Sora mentally sighed when he thought about it, but he didn't spend too long thinking about Axel's consideration. It wouldn't do him any good.

"He was knocked off his feet—literally," was what Riku offered as an explanation to Axel's and Hayner's curiosity. "Some girl was riding recklessly on her skateboard near downtown Twilight when we were on our way to some late lunch. They met at a corner and then _boom,_" for emphasis, Riku smacked his two hands together to create a thunderous sound, "Bloody knees and broken wrist, just like that."

"Man, and I thought a juicy story was going to come out of this," Hayner pouted. "That's kind of boring."

"Did you just call me breaking my wrist boring?" Sora shot, giving the dirty-blonde a glare. Hayner sheepishly smiled in response. "Can't keep up in class _and _I'm off of swimming for a while. There goes nearly one-third of my swim season. You think my internship appreciates me typing with a third of my speed too?"

"We get it, we get it, you big complaining warthog. Cheer up, at least you didn't get a huge bonk on the head; who knows where that would've landed you," Axel smirked as he turned on his TV and his console. "How's the girl though? You just let her off?"

"I mean, what could she have done?" Sora said. "Does it look like I'm going to press her for money?"

"That's actually kind of the typical thing people would request for," Hayner butted in. "Or any type of compensation to be honest. You're unexpectedly nice about this. Look at how much you're handicapped right now, dude."

"It's whatever."

"It didn't sound like it was just 'whatever' three minutes ago, buddy," Riku chuckled as he gave Sora a pat on the shoulder. "Anyway, Sora's wrist-breaking story got nothing on what happened to Axel this weekend."

"Oh no, how come I do _not_ want to hear this?" However, opposite to his words, Hayner came in closer to hear what dirt Riku got on Axel. Having already known all about Axel's wild stories—especially with him greatly active in the party scene—Sora simply zoned everything out as he continued to fiddle with his laptop. Sora wasn't much of a party-goer compared to Axel and Riku (they believed that youth was too short). However, Riku always managed to drag him to a few here and then, but after he woke up at a stranger's house with no recollection of how he got there, Sora opted from ever experiencing such a horrendous thing again.

"Axel got so drunk, he started to have a moment with one of the flower pots and—"

_Yup, I'm going to stop listening here._

When it was time for his late class of the day, Sora excused himself from his friends and went on out. Arriving to the lecture hall, he was surprised that almost all the seats were taken. He gave it two weeks—two weeks before sixty percent of the class stopped showing up. _Tryhards die hard._ Vowing that there was no way he was going to sit his bottom on the floor, he made himself comfortable at one of the left-handed seats that were always available. _Fits my situation perfectly._

Sora sat next to a blonde girl who was already intently staring at her laptop and typing away even before the lecture even started. Then he remembered how he was probably in a class full of freshman since this was one of the intro electrical engineering classes he decided to postpone for way too long. _Freshmen are so funny._

When Sora sat down, they unexpectedly made eye contact with each other, and the same thought crossed both their minds once they saw each other's faces.

_He/she looks familiar._

Sora met with startling blue eyes—eyes blue enough to rival the seas of Destiny Islands. With silky blonde hair to match, Sora almost questioned as to why such a girl was in an electrical engineering class; the field was already deprived of girls as it is. He already knew that this girl was going to be _the_ talk of the department by the time he was done with this week.

"Sorry, is there something wrong?"

Sora snapped out of it; he had stared too long.

"Sorry, nothing. I mistook you for someone else." He was only half-lying—she did look familiar. However, he couldn't pinpoint as to where he saw her before. The girl seemed to have the same thought, for she smiled in understanding before she looked at the cast on his right wrist.

"A lot of people are breaking their wrist nowadays, huh?"

"Excuse me?"

The blonde gestured at his cast with a nod of her head. "You are the second person I've seen with a broken wrist. What do people do during the summer?"

Before he could say anything back, the professor had walked in, successfully killing the chance of any conversation popping up anymore. The blonde shifted herself in her seat to find the most comfortable position before directing her entire attention on the professor. Sora did the same, but instead of listening to the professor, he simply took out his phone for more forum scrolling. It wasn't until a multiple-choice question popped up on the board when he heard her soft voice again.

"Um, did you solve it yet?"

Sora's eyes left his phone and looked up at the board, remembering how he unfortunately forgot his clicker, but who could blame him—it was only the first day of class. Nonetheless, he scanned the problem since someone requested for his help.

"Uh, I think it's B."

"Okay, cool, I got that too." The blonde eagerly pressed on her clicker before setting it back on her desk. Sora found it amusing how she got so excited for solving a problem. _Definitely a freshman_.

Sora also didn't think he would ever see her again—this is an exaggeration, but he doubted he would ever sit next to her again in lecture—until they oddly walked towards the same direction. At first, he tried to speed up so that he could walk in front of her and pretend they were not going the same direction, but after five minutes of them walking through a very specific path, he slowed down while she sped up.

"Are you going to discussion too?" she breathed, laptop case clutched to her chest. Sora nodded.

"I'm surprised you already know the way?"

"Oh yes, I looked for all my classes before they started the day before." This statement confirmed his earlier guess of her being a freshman. "This place is really big. Did you have a hard time looking for your classes too?"

Sora refrained himself from raising an eyebrow; this girl was definitely friendlier and more sociable than he thought she would be.

"No," he answered her, "I didn't. I'm a third year here, so I'm pretty familiar with the place by now, I would hope." Then her head suddenly popped out by the side so that she could make eye contact with him, irking him greatly.

"Oh really now? Then why are you in my class?"

"... Is there a problem?"

"Isn't it an intro class?"

"I procrastinated on taking it, since none of my classes really require it as a prereq."

"Oh really, what major are you?"

"Computer engineering…"

"Oh, oh, I'm electrical!"

Sora had to do a double-take; this was the most social interaction he has ever held with someone he just met in one lecture. She smiled at him, indicating that she had no idea how he thought of her friendliness as too brilliant. She balanced her laptop case on one arm while she stuck out her other hand. Sora simply stared at it for a quick second.

"I'm Namine. Nice to meet you."

"Sora," was all he said as he firmly shook her hand. Then he thought about her major. "It's rare to see someone like you with the major."

"Yeah, I know," she laughed. "I was hoping to see more females, but alas, I am struck with disappointing results. It's okay, everyone seems friendly enough."

"They won't be friendly anymore once midterms come around," Sora muttered. He swore that what he said was not meant to erupt laughter, but it did anyway as Namine chuckled a bit.

"We have to stick our heads together during those times. Really!"

"... Sure."

"Is it okay if I bother you for help or advice sometimes?"

"Hm?" Sora didn't quite understand what she meant until she whipped out her phone from her back pocket and waved it in his visual field.

"Phone number!"

_Oh._ Sora was not comfortable lending his phone number to a person he had only a ten-minute conversation with, but she seemed genuine about it. "Even though I'm here, I'm actually scared of classes… It would be nice to know that I can rely on someone for help if I need it. I'll try to help you the best I can to if you need it as well!"

"Uh… sure." Sora signaled for her phone, entered his number, and called himself so that he could store her number in as well. When he handed it back to her, Namine gave him another smile in thanks. If Sora was petty, he could've competed with Riku with the fastest phone number ever received from a girl.

"Is discussion important?" came more of her questions. For the rest of the walk to their class, Sora humored her and answered all of her typical freshman questions without missing a single beat. Before he knew it, he grasped a general picture of the girl: kind, warm-hearted, and studious. He felt sorry for her—she was definitely going to be prey in this department.

After discussion, Sora found himself standing face-to-face with Namine once more outside the classroom. Right when he was about bid her farewell, she finally said something outside of college which completely caught him off guard.

"You're the same guy, right?" Namine then pointed to his cast. "Same guy who got into an accident with my sister."

"Sister?" he blurted out dumbly. Namine laughed at how he obviously did not see the connection yet nor remember her face from Week 0 when he first talked to her sister.

"The redhead with the skateboard. She's my twin sister. We saw each other briefly when you handed back her ID card just a week ago."

Sora still had to think about it for a hot second before he understood what moment of time she was talking about.

"Ah, no wonder why I thought you looked familiar when I first saw you. You were the person standing kind of next to her. Twin sister?" Of course he knew the difference between identical and fraternal, but the differences here were too stark for him to attach the phrase "twin" onto them. One had blonde hair while the other had red hair. _Talk about the wonders of genetics._

"Yeah, everyone questions—you're not the only one who has a hard time grasping the idea. Our family is usually blond or black. Kairi is actually the only redhead since the time of our great-great grandmother. Fun fact for you," Namine explained matter-of-factly. "People think it's weird. I think it's cool."

"I don't think it's weird," Sora chuckled. "I think it's pretty cool too." Not only were the hair colors different; the personalities were different too. One seemed gentle and friendly while the other was the complete opposite with the fierceness and all. _I wonder what the family dynamic is_, Sora curiously thought to himself. _And right when I thought I wouldn't get involved with her again..._

Namine's gaze became concerned as she observed his broken wrist again. She let out a sigh and pursed her lips.

"I see you struggling in class."

Sora grimaced. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, sorry."

Sora then raised an eyebrow. "What are you sorry about?"

"About your wrist."

"That's not something you need to be sorry about. Nor your sister in a way either. An accident is an accident," he reassured. He also didn't want to sound like he was putting the blame on anyone. However, Namine shook her head, obviously distressed.

"Is there anything I—or we—could do for you?"

"Uh, not really, so it's—"

"Wait, you take notes in class, right? Wait, you're computer engineering—you obviously need to go like this," and Namine started to air type on an imaginary keyboard whilst balancing her laptop case between the crook of her arm. Sora blinked at her, suddenly finding her a bit quirky.

"I mean, yes and yes, but I—"

"Wait, I have a great idea. I'll get my sister to help you out in some way. It's legit the least she could do for riding her skateboard around recklessly and injuring you in the process—"

"Okay, hold on, I really appreciate the thought, but that's a little bit unnecess—"

"You've been so nice too, letting her off the hook so easily, taking her to the hospital, _and_ returning her ID card for her on such a special day. She can help you take notes or something during class if she has the time! To make your workload easier."

Sora gave up on trying to change the blonde's mind—her mouth legit just kept on _going_. He smiled weakly, not sure on what to say anymore. "Sure."

Namine clapped her two hands together, and Sora wondered how on Earth she didn't drop her laptop yet with the way the balance kept shifting around with every different arm movement she made. "Great! I'll let you know. Now the both of us can feel a little bit less guilty."

"I mean, like I said, you don't need to feel guilty over any—"

"I'll see you in class again on Tuesday!"

And before Sora could even say another word to somehow attempt to reject her offer, the blonde was already scurrying off to the opposite direction, leaving the brunet to process the enormous amount of words she spat out in less than a minute. He scratched his head, puzzled at what had just happened.

"—thing," he lamely finished for himself after a delayed pause. He let out a long breath before accepting the sudden imposition. He really was fine, even if he was handicapped with all of his essential activities. Plus, for some reason, he had a strong, strong feeling that he was _not_ going to get along with Kairi. After all, there was something odd about her and her interactions with him, even if they talked for only a short period of time.

_Great._

Sora sighed once more, already feeling some sort of impending doom knocking at his door for the next two months.

~.~.~

"What the hell, Namine?"

Namine winced when her sister slammed her spoon back onto the table. The two sisters who did not want to have dinner alone opted to eat together in Kairi's dorm. However, the mood quickly became sour the moment Kairi heard her sister's preposterous idea. "Who said you could just thrust me in a situation like that without my consent?"

"Kairi, you legit _broke_ his wrist. Do you not feel any sense of remorse?" Namine argued. "You even accused him as some sort of stalker even after he helped you!"

"Ever heard of stranger danger?" Kairi shot back. She ran a hand through her hair, having a hard time letting her sister's busy-body self sink in. "The past is the past, and the guy let it go. I let it go too, so why do I have to help him with something he didn't even ask for?"

"He's not asking for anything because he's being _nice_," Namine continued to reason. "If he was any other average person, he would've sued your ass, but instead, he let you off the hook and even made sure your hands and knees were treated. Plus, he could've just left your ID card to die, but _no_, he hand delivers it to you! And you really seemed like you didn't appreciate it at all. The least you could do is actually help him out a little bit to make his life a little bit easier. Do you know how much he's struggling in class? Kairi, he's a computer engineer!"

_Blah, blah, blah._

Kairi looked at her nails. "And?"

Just like she did to Sora late this afternoon, Namine furiously typed on an imaginary keyboard in the air. "This is his life, Kairi!"

Whatever guilt trip her sister was performing, it was working. Kairi rolled her eyes at her sister's exaggerations, but the more her sister described the guy's situation, the more she felt bad. It wasn't as if she didn't appreciate him; it was more like she didn't really have the time to and only did so after the whole fiasco. She also was sure that she would never see the guy again, so Kairi didn't even think twice about him until Namine suddenly brought him up again. She feigned ignorance in front of her sister, but that didn't stop her insides from feeling some sort of guilt.

"Even so, what do you even want me to do about it? What help can I possibly do?"

Namine crossed her arms, plan already thought out.

"At least help him take notes during class or something."

"'Or something'? Namine, you sound _real_ convincing." Kairi resumed eating her dinner.

"Kairi, I already did you a favor and didn't tell Mom and Dad what happened."

The spoon was dropped onto the table again. This time, Kairi actually felt slight anger rise in her the moment Namine mentioned their parents.

"You seriously aren't blackmailing me right now, are you? Namine, the guy is just a stranger! Why are you insisting on this so much?"

"Because I feel some sort of responsibility over your mistakes!" Namine snapped. "Plus, I'm going to see this guy two to three times a week, and every time I see his cast, I get guilty too."

"You can feel all you want, but do you seriously have to mention Mom and Dad to me? Dude, I'm in college now!" Kairi slammed the cap of her food shut; she was going to go eat somewhere else. "How much longer are you going to hold the reins on me, _little sister_?"

"No one holds the reins on you."

"Sure, says the person who thinks she can say and do whatever to me just 'cause she's the better sister around here with the bigger parent card." Kairi never intended to go this far—they have had this type of disagreement multiple times—but the mention of parents in college really knocked the tea over the table. Namine's mouth hung slightly open, astonished at what Kairi just spewed out of her mouth.

"You know that's not true."

"You can say that all you want, but we all know what's true around here."

"Kairi—"

"Do you know how I feel when I get into an awesome college, despite being an undeclared major, only to have my little sister also get an acceptance in not only the college, but also the college's most prestige department. It was as if my hard work just got toppled over by a bulldozer!"

"Hey, no one said your hard work was for nothing."

"And I came all the way here to have some freedom after so many years underneath your shadow—don't bring Destiny Islands over to Twilight Town, Namine. You're already here; don't bring anything else."

Kairi knew she went a little overboard, but all of her pent up thoughts about college and her sister since acceptance until now just exploded. She came to college to start a new type of life, not repeat it. She ignored the look of hurt that crossed her sister's face as she took her food and left her single dorm to go downstairs and sit out on one of the tables outside. Namine simply stared at her hands for a little bit before taking her food and exiting Kairi's dorm to go back to her own.

Kairi sat outside and allowed the calm cold air to cool her down. She instantly regretted the words she spouted despite all the truth she held within them. Just because they were truth didn't mean she could just yell at her little sister like that, but she really did have a hard time keeping her feelings of anguish tucked deep inside of her. Destiny Islands was something she wanted to let go and move on from—it was difficult when her sister was here in Twilight Town as well.

"Kairi, you are one difficult girl," the redhead muttered to herself, poking her food with her spoon. "Very difficult girl."

In the next two hours, Kairi received a text from her sister herself. Wondering what she could even say after her mini-explosion, Kairi opened the text and groaned out loud.

Her dear twin sister sent her Sora's schedule, and it so happened that his schedule fit _perfectly_ against hers. The next text was his number, and Kairi seriously questioned whether or not the guy gave her sister consent to just share his phone number.

_This is so extra._

However, Namine's guilt speech worked, so in less than ten seconds, Kairi found herself saving his number and texting him.

_And all this came from riding on a skateboard around Twilight Town._

~.~.~

Sora was in the middle of fiddling with his things when his phone vibrated against the table. Settling his tools down, he slid his chair a bit to reach and grab his phone. It was peculiar to see a foreign number message him, but his eyes were quick to read and understand what the text was about.

_this is kairi. i'll meet u at your class tomorrow_

"Short and simple, huh?" He let out a single chuckle, amused at how fast Namine worked her magic. Throwing his phone back on his bed, he didn't bother to reply to the text; a seen receipt should be good enough. He had no idea what tomorrow with the redhead would look like, but it couldn't be all that bad. After all, this was supposed to help him out, right? Nothing could possibly go wrong with note taking. Before he went to sleep that night, he saved Kairi's number and put only a single fire emoji for her name.

_Fits her perfectly._

As for Kairi, she saved his number with a single injured head emoji for his name.

_Fits him perfectly._

~.~.~

Axel lazily slung his left leg over his propped right one, body splayed over the entirety of the bed while his two hands held a controller loosely. Eventually getting bored of the game he was playing, the flamehead simply threw the controller over to the side and went over to his best friend to bother him for a little bit.

"Roxas, you've been at your desk since _forever_. Dude, your best friend's over right now—at least humor me for a bit, pal." To make sure he had his best friend's full attention, Axel ruffled up his blond locks, earning a grumpy but playful groan.

"Sorry, Axel. I've just been caught up with this new model."

Axel peeked over Roxas's shoulder to look at his desk. It didn't matter if he did or not anyway; there were too many small and funky parts for him to even take in and understand. At Roxas's disposal was a bunch of tools and screws scattered across the table like marbles while his laptop sat opened near the edge of the table. Axel pushed it in so that it wouldn't fall, finding it funny how every part of his best friend's room was hygienic minus this gigantic table that sat at the far corner across his bed.

"Are you sure you don't lose parts around here?" Axel asked, now eyeing how dangerously close a few screws were from falling off the edge of the table. As if reading his mind, Roxas pushed it back deep into the table before smiling sheepishly.

"Course not. What makes you think I do?"

"Gee, I wonder."

Axel gave a low whistle as he swept his eyes over the different types of Keyblades that hung on the walls of Roxas's room. The brilliant metal of each blade shone underneath the light, giving each Keyblade a unique glow of its own. The flamehead still had a hard time accepting the fact that his best friend was the genius behind all of these designs—designs that represented the face of Keywielders.

"How's your dad doing? I wouldn't be surprised if he is swamped with work considering how Daybreak Town finally opened their own Keyblade arena."

"Yup, he has plans to travel there this week so that he can check and make sure everything is processing smoothly. He's a little bit traumatized when Destiny Islands opened their first Keyblade arena a few years ago only for all the holograms to start glitching on the second week of operation," Roxas chuckled. "I heard the Oblivion Keyblade is a huge roar right now, but people are already wanting another release. Guess who is in charge of designing a new model?"

"Look, I understand that being the son of the CEO of Keywielders is a big deal and all since, you know, great power comes with great responsibility—" at this, Roxas rolled his eyes, "—but we gotta remember that you're also just a regular guy in his third year of college." Axel smacked the back of Roxas's shoulder for emphasis. "Live a bit here, man. This whole thing with the Keyblades and Keywielders isn't going to go anywhere. It wouldn't hurt to take a rest."

"I guess," came Roxas's short reply. He exhaled a long breath as he surveyed all the Keyblade models he built just like Axel did a minute ago.

"M'hm. Also, I think you should spend some more time with your mom rather than coup yourself up in this room of yours. I think she would really appreciate it. " The tone in Axel's voice immediately dampened at the mentioned of Roxas's mom. Roxas weakly smiled as he gave a small nod.

"I did. We walked around the garden today."

"That's good. I should go say hi to her, huh?"

"She wouldn't mind, but…"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "But?"

"I don't know, she's just been really tired lately. She just wants more… _rest_." Roxas's smile faltered, and Axel didn't blame him. Instead, he patted his best friend's shoulder in comfort—it was the only thing he could do anyway.

"That's fine. And understandable. We should go to the park together, the three of us. I'm sure Coconut would love to sniff some more dog butts."

"Definitely. No one has really taken her out on a walk as of late."

"What a bad owner. _Tsk, tsk._"

"Yeah, I know."

The two entered a small moment of silence. Roxas's lips were pursed together in a minuscule smile while Axel took his turn to let out a long breath. He noticed that they have been happening a lot more frequently, these random moments of silence. He always knew Roxas was the type to just space out and forget his surroundings for second just so that he could have some time to think, but it never happened as often as this. Axel wanted to ask what plagued the thoughts of his best friend. However, not wanting to suddenly indulge in a potentially somber mood so quickly at the school year, Axel clapped his hands together and grinned.

"C'mon, I'm super hungry. I heard this month's monster burrito down Aerith's Joint is super wicked. We _have_ to try it."

Roxas laughed, always amazed at his friend's huge appetite. Finding the idea of having a burrito for dinner not too bad, Roxas reached over his desk to grab his keys before he stood up and stretched his tired arms above his head.

"Sounds like a plan. But you have to promise me that you aren't going to speed-eat the burrito."

"No promises there, buddy, no promises there."

* * *

Chapter 3! Hope the fanfic has been going smoothly c: Right now I'm actually just trying to introduce more characters, so sorry if it has been slow! Enjoy enjoy~


	4. woven

Riku watched as his best friend kept tapping the case of his laptop impatiently with a finger while staring off into the distance. At first, he thought Sora was merely just staring off into the distance, but when he saw the focus in those eyes, he knew he was looking out for something. Riku's suspicions grew even more when Sora took out his phone and tapped a few things before excusing himself.

"See you later, guys, I got class," he said as he stuffed his laptop into his backpack.

"Later," Axel replied, eyes never leaving his phone. Riku gave a wave goodbye and watched his friend with careful eyes as he left the table they sat at.

"Don't you think Sora was a bit odd just now?" Riku asked Axel once Sora was out of earshot. "He was a bit fidgety."

"When is he not fidgety?" Axel scoffed. He put his phone face-down and rested his chin on his propped hand, giving Riku a raised brow. "He's always agitated about something nowadays—what's new?"

"I like how you accepted his current temperament so easily," Riku muttered. Feeling like he needed some sweetness in his lonely, _single_ life right at this moment, the silver-haired dug into his backpack and popped a piece of candy into his mouth. He rolled it around in his mouth for a moment before he continued talking. "I'm still not used to it."

"Used to what?"

"Sora's personality change."

Axel sighed, already knowing what kind of thoughts were running through Riku's mind. Before he could implore on the ideas some more, Axel was quick to stop him. "We've talked about this many times already. I don't think Sora is going through a phase or anything—that's just who he is now."

"But—"

"There's no use wasting brain energy on thinking about what could've happened to him if said person doesn't want to open up," Axel shook his head, causing Riku to purse his lips, "Don't force it, Riku. Or else you're just going to strain the dynamics between us again."

Before Riku could say anything back, Axel's phone dinged. He read his text real quick before standing up and giving Riku a wave goodbye. "I'll see you later too. Xion and Roxas are calling for my attention."

"_Pfft_, Xion—haven't seen her in a while. How she doing?" Riku asked out of pure curiosity. Axel rolled his eyes as if such a question was too much to answer.

"She's fine—too fine, to be honest. It's a bit scary."

"Wow, she moves on quick, doesn't she?"

"Tell me about it," Axel gave Riku a mock salute with his two fingers and clicked his tongue. "Time to be entertained by Roxas's cluelessness once more. It's gonna be a blast."

"Tell him I said 'hi.'" Riku hadn't seen Roxas as frequently anymore as he would like either. Axel nodded before he excused himself again and went on his way. Now alone at the table where he sat at, Riku heaved a long breath and rested both his arms on the table. He stared at his hands and opened and closed them, thoughts again a bit more conflicted.

_When did everything start falling apart?_

~.~.~

"It's time for his class," Kairi gruffly said to her sister. She collected all of the trash on her tray to dump. "I'll be heading out."

"Be nice to him!" Namine advised, and Kairi simply rolled her eyes in a response.

The nice thing about being family is that arguments and fights cooled down and resolved on their own without any awkward confrontations about it. Once the two sisters talked to each other again the next day, whatever happened the night before was history—in the outer appearances at least.

Kairi had a hard time maneuvering through the school to get to this class of his. None of her classes were located near the engineering department, so attempting to get there without even knowing what the area looked like was a task.

_So that's how they met_, Kairi thought about Namine's encounter with Sora. _They're fellow engineers. _Considering how Twilight University was best known for their engineering department, Kairi already had a vague picture made from stereotypes forming in her mind about the guy. _Nerdy, stuck-up, and uptight._

_Where r u?_ is what she texts him when she is sure she is within the vicinity of his class. His text came quicker than she thought.

_I see you. Stay there._

Kairi naturally started to turn her head to look for the guy. It shouldn't have been hard to spot her; no one had red hair around here. It shouldn't have been too hard to find him amongst the crowds going to their classes either; no one had spiky hair like him. She wondered if it was even natural or not.

_Pretty lame if he spikes it up on purpose with gel every morning_, Kairi snickered to herself.

She didn't feel too much when she saw him coming towards her. It wasn't as if he was a friend or any of the sorts. If anything, she felt more of a sense of duty than a sense of potential friendship. Wondering how she was going to stay awake through these probably-boring lectures of his, Kairi strengthened her mind and walked towards him.

"Fancy meeting you here," Sora grinned mockingly. Kairi sighed but managed a smile for the sake of it.

"Where's your class?"

"Bet you didn't think you would see me again in this gigantic school. It's over here," Sora signaled with a hand to follow him, and together, the two entered the huge lecture hall. Already she was greeted with an atmosphere that was more chatty than her general-ed classes. Since it was his third year, people probably already knew each other around here. Sora's eyes scanned for a place in the back with two empty seats and went ahead and took them. Kairi awkwardly squeezed through the rows to follow him. Once they sat down, Sora took out a thin notebook and slapped it on her tiny desk.

"Write down what seems important. Otherwise, it's whatever," was all Sora said to instruct her. She looked at him, looked at the notebook, and turned her eyes to look back at him. _How the hell am I supposed to know what is important? _Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Sora raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Am I supposed to know what is important?" Kairi laughed nervously, trying her best not to sound irritated. "Is this an upper-div class?"

"Yeah, it is. And?"

"... I'm not sure if I'm able to write the notes you would like," Kairi said with a gentle rise in her voice. She really wanted him to give her a more distinct direction as to how the notes should be taken—after all, if this was already here, she might as well do a good job, or else she would just suffer in pure agony for the rest of the quarter. When a small smirk appeared upon Sora's lips, she knew he was playing her.

"It's a computer science class—physical note-taking is almost non-existent," he finally explained. He gestured with his eyes towards the mass of students, all adorned with a laptop in front of them. Compared to the laptops whipped out, the notebook in front of Kairi seemed lifeless. Her mouth hung open slightly as she processed the scene in front of her. _Then why am I here?_

Before she could voice her complaint, Sora put words in her mouth once more.

"I told your sister that I really didn't need anyone here to help me out, but she was insistent. I didn't actually think she would convince you."

Kairi tried her best not to twitch her eye. Instead she smiled again before she spoke.

"It is a way to show you how sorry I am about your wrist," she said. Sora raised an eyebrow at her cordial tone. "And an apology for calling you a stalker. I was just flustered to see you again on a hectic day."

"Flustered, huh?" Sora was not hesitant to show how unconvinced he was. He looked at her with a look of entertainment twinkling in his eyes. Kairi could not discern why.

"Yes, sorry," she repeated again. She offered another smile, which finally broke the guy and caused him to erupt into chuckles. Of course, her smile faltered. "Is something the matter?"

"You're interesting," Sora smirked, looking her straight in the eye as he fiddled with the watch on his arm. "Very interesting." Kairi widened her eyes.

"Excuse m—"

"But very basic."

_What?_

Kairi's mouth opened entirely in shock at his comment, having a difficult time accepting the fact that a mere stranger literally just insulted her right in front of her face. Sora gave her a questioning yet challenging look, as if daring her to bite back at him. She moved her jaw by the slightest, her natural instincts to claw coming forth, but she stopped herself and tried to smile again. However, that only furthered his cause.

"I'm sorry, but—"

"You can drop the smile, sweetheart. I can tell you're not genuine, so there's no point in using your skill on me," Sora stated, point and blank. His amused expression was replaced with one of slight disappointment as he sighed and looked back towards the front of the lecture hall. "You can go if you don't want to be here. It wouldn't matter if you were here or not since none of my classes are notes-heavy. At least you came—definitely surprised me that you actually showed up."

Kairi, again and again, was lost at words the more Sora spoke. With the way he spoke and the way he carelessly fiddled with his crown necklace, he wasn't beating around the bush—he meant what he said. When she didn't say anything back, he turned back to look at her, once more urging her to say something in retaliation. When Kairi didn't, Sora simply took his notebook back and slipped it inside his open backpack at his feet.

"You can go," is all he said to excuse her. "Thanks for coming."

Kairi blankly looked at the professor, who was setting up his laptop and was about to start lecture. Even though there were numerous thoughts running through her mind, there was only one that really encompassed her as she took in what this stranger just slapped her in the face with.

_How humiliating._

When Sora didn't see her moving from the corner of his eye, he started to get concerned—was he too harsh? Before he could turn towards her and say anything (he didn't even know what he would even say after delivering such a harsh blow), a hand suddenly shot towards his backpack and fished his notebook right back out. His eyes weren't slow to shoot back at her. Without another word, Kairi took out her pencil from her bag and opened his notebook to a fresh, clean page. With strong strokes, she wrote the date on the first line before setting her pencil down gently and crossing her arms. Sora could only blink at her; it was his turn to be confused. Feeling his stare, she gave him a side look and raised an eyebrow.

"What? The notes aren't going to take themselves," she cooly said. She turned her eyes back to the professor, disabling him from even saying another word back. He merely stared at her for another moment before laughing out loud. However, he settled down along with everyone else in the lecture hall when the professor spoke into the mic.

_Interesting._ He shook his head to himself, as if caught with disbelief. _Very, very interesting._

When lecture was done, Kairi threw his notebook back at him, which he caught with fumbling arms. Once again, she forgot about his handicapped state, but she didn't apologize.

"See you tomorrow," was all she said before she slung her backpack over her shoulder and joined the crowd leaving the lecture hall. Sora blinked at her quickly disappearing figure before he straightened the notebook on the tiny desk and flip through it with his healthy arm. What he saw surprised him greatly.

Every section was labeled with what slide the professor was at during the lecture. The redhead had tried to jot down everything the professor said that seemed important and even made sure it was understandable and not just chicken scratch. Impressed, he closed the notebook shut and slipped it back into his backpack before standing up and leaving the place himself. When he got outside, the redhead was already gone and out of sight.

Unbeknownst to him, Kairi had quickly escaped to the back of the lecture hall to avoid him and wait until he was far gone.

_You can drop the smile, sweetheart._

It was rare—rare for someone to see right through her. Then she shook her head to herself. No, it wasn't that. That wasn't why she got all shaken up.

No, it was the fact that he dared to point it out right in front of her face with absolutely no fear. His tone was straight, cold, and disappointed. It shouldn't have affected her this much; he was nothing to her. He was just a stranger—a stranger she met through an unfortunate accident. He didn't know who she was or a single thing about her. Heck, they didn't even introduce themselves to each other. She only knew his name because of his friend calling out to him and he only knew her name because of her lost ID card.

_So why?_

Kairi ran her two hands through her hair to smooth it out before she wiped her eyes with her sleeve from unexpected dampness. There wasn't going to be any crying today.

"He's nothing," Kairi convinced herself. "He doesn't know a thing about you, Kairi. Don't take his words to heart. Don't."

However, Kairi left the lecture hall feeling like her mind was flipped inside out, exposed for the entire world to see and criticize.

~.~.~

Axel munched loudly on his kale. His friends had stopped questioning why he brought kale—and only kale—in a Ziploc bag. Of course, he felt attacked; what was wrong with being healthy with a healthy snack nowadays? He watched his two best friends Roxas and Xion chit-chat, but when his dear female friend laughed a little bit too much, he made sure to take an extra loud crunch on his leafy greens. Roxas was oblivious to his intentional actions, but Xion wasn't. She gave the flamehead a side glare, which he returned with a clueless look. Roxas, who noticed the sudden silence, joined in on the clueless look.

"Something the matter, guys?"

"Yeah, is something wrong, Xion?" Axel teased. Xion faked a smile and shook her head. Axel could already imagine how she was kicking him in her head.

"No, I just thought I saw a bug on Axel," Xion smoothly lied. This time, Roxas was a little bit less clueless with the way Xion's eye twitched, but didn't question it as he stood up and grabbed his backpack from the seat next to him.

"It's class time for me. Let's hang out my place this weekend?"

"Can we go somewhere else that isn't your place?" Xion groaned. "Your house is legit scary."

Roxas gave her a quizzical look. "Why?"

"Dude, let's not forget who your dad is."

"He's not that intimidating."

"..."

"..."

"Fine, we can be flexible," Roxas rolled his eyes. "Bye bye."

"Bye, Roxas," Axel and Xion said simultaneously. The two watched their spiky-blonde friend disappear, and once he was out of earshot, Xion narrowed her eyes at Axel.

"And what was that?"

Axel took out another leaf of kale, examined it, and stuffed it in his mouth.

"What?" he said, continuing to feign cluelessness. When she wasn't having it, he broke into cackles. Xion was slightly disgusted to see some of the leafy greens almost spilling from his mouth. "It's just too entertaining pissing you off, friend."

"And when did this new hobby come about? I'm dying to know," Xion hissed. Axel had never treated her like this. They were still the closest of friends, but he has been starting to tick her off as of late. When she took a second to think about it, it all began when—

"When you broke up with Sora," Axel said nonchalantly. "I think around there? Yeah." He did not look fazed at all as he spoke the truth. Done with his kale, he closed the bag with one swift movement. Xion's mouth hung open slightly before she closed it and rolled her eyes at him.

"At least you're honest about it," Xion scoffed. She crossed her arms across her chest. "What, do you not want to be my friend anymore? Is that why you're antagonizing me?"

"No, you're still the same to me. I just want to piss you off a bit to make your life a little bit harder, my dear best friend," Axel grinned. Xion did not like the way he was being so facetious about the topic because she knew he was anything but deep inside. She could tell; she had known him since elementary school. On the outside, he was labeled by many as a wild animal, but those green eyes of him held something deeper than his stupid party antics.

"Do enlighten me as to why I deserve such treatment. You're normal when it's just us two, but whenever I'm with Roxas, you're always trying to—"

"I'm just trying to see whether or not you feel remorse or even care about what has happened to all of us and the friend group," Axel interrupted her, getting right to the point. "I hope you realized you probably made things worse."

"Hey, don't blame something so much more complicated on a typical break up," Xion shot, but Axel shot back even faster.

"Typical break up, my ass. I know it's a lot more complicated, but I never said I blamed it on you. I just said you made it _worse_."

"Don't get technical with me here, Axel," Xion growled. It was her turn to grab her backpack and stand up. Axel simply watched her as she got all riled up and upset. "Right now, your treatment isn't a big deal since I know it's just you standing up for Sora, but if it continues to the point where I'm really sick of it, we're going to have a serious talk. You and me."

"Oh yeah, I think we _all_ need a serious talk," Axel grinned once more, successfully ticking Xion off a cliff.

"See you later."

"C'ya."

Axel was left alone on the table and laughed when he realized how his situation mirrored Riku's just earlier in the day today.

"Damn," he said to himself. He clicked his tongue to himself as he packed his stuff to leave as well. "I'm such a hypocrite."

_You're just going to strain the dynamics between us._

"Yup. Big ol' hypocrite."

~.~.~

Kairi really hated introductions in college. It wasn't just the name that they asked for, nor the area where she was from. No, it included what major she was too and having to tell them that she was an undeclared just made the whole situation even more of a distaste. Currently in her anthropology class, Kairi internally groaned when she saw what was up on the powerpoint slide.

"This class involves a lot of discussion since we will be talking about topics that reflect what we see today in our society. Take a moment to know the people next to you," her professor said, and Kairi tried not to visibly cringe. When she realized that no one was sitting directly next to her, she felt spared from the idea of introducing herself. The class wasn't as filled as the core classes such as chemistry and math. However, just when she thought she could avoid being social, some blond guy decided to walk down the stairs and sit right next to her when there were a bunch of available seats elsewhere. _Just my freaking luck._

"Hey," he breathed, putting his backpack at his feet. It looked like he had just come running. His eyes glanced momentarily at the slide, scanned through it real quick, and turned towards her with a smile. He extended a hand out, which Kairi automatically took. "I'm Roxas."

"I'm Kairi," she responded. _Here we go again._

She took a moment to take in his appearance. With blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a neat-looking appearance given by the simple tee and black jeans he wore, this guy was legit shining. However, he was a little bit too bright for Kairi as she gave him a small smile.

Roxas took the lead by asking the questions up on the board. "So, where are you from?"

"Destiny Islands."

"Ooo, that's pretty far. Do you like the weather down here? I've never been to Destiny Islands before but I'm pretty sure it's different," he laughed. Kairi mentally raised an eyebrow at him; he was very good at talking too.

"It's a lot cooler and less humid here, but the summer heat is still here regardless. Are you from around here?"

"Oh yeah. I'm a Twilight Town native. I actually live like twenty minutes away from here."

"So you commute."

"Yup. Any questions about Twilight Town and I'd be happy to help you out with." He was very friendly too—friendlier than any of the people she had encountered so far since she came to this college.

"Nice to know."

Then came the dreaded third question.

"So what major are you?" Roxas continued to ask, and this is where Kairi masks her discomfort from the question.

"I came here undeclared," she said smoothly. Every time she mentioned that she was an undeclared, there wasn't any sort of discrimination or anything (or at least she would hope so) amongst this science institution, but there was definitely a type of awkwardness since she couldn't relate to anyone. Ready to see the withdrawal from Roxas's interactions, Kairi didn't expect the opposite to happen.

"Oh, undeclared—I was undeclared too when I first came here," he grinned. "Did a little bit of soul searching when I stepped foot onto this ginormous campus, but you'll eventually find something you'd like to do."

"You were undeclared? What major are you now?" Kairi asked, her curiosity peaking in less than a nanosecond. There must've been a difference in tone, for she saw how the blond raised both his eyebrows in very slight surprise, but he nevertheless smiled at her.

"I'm a double major. I do speculative design and computer science."

Kairi let out a mock sigh of disappointment. "Of course, I'm not surprised about the second major."

"I mean, what can I say? It's what this school is known for."

"But speculative design? That's an oddie."

"You're not the only one who has questioned. Gotta prepare for an alien invasion some day, right?" Kairi blinked; he had a sense of humor too. Kairi didn't need to know more about the guy to see that he was a little bit too perfect.

"Or when we finally start having an actual system of flying cars," Kairi humored him. "What made you take up speculative design?"

"Hm, you're not going to ask about the computer science?"

"We all know that's for the money-making aspect," Kairi scoffed, causing the blond to chuckle a little bit.

"You're not wrong there, but my, er, _future_ job is related to both my majors, so that's why I picked both CS and speculative design to answer your question."

"How innovative," is what Kairi says in substitution for "too much brain work." However, the way she delivered it was a bit too flat, and Roxas caught on to her distaste of the idea of double majoring in those fields.

"Anything hard is fun when you love it. Hopefully, you will also find the field that's right for you," Roxas encouraged. Kairi merely sighed; it was easier said than done. "You'll get there, Kairi. Twilight University offers many things, so don't worry about it too soon."

"Thanks." At least her interaction with Roxas was a plus to her college experience so far.

After the lecture was over, the two exchanged numbers since Roxas wanted to feel a sense of security of having contact with at least one person for every class. Kairi gladly named him normally as "Roxas Hikari" unlike a certain someone within her contact list.

"I'll catch you around. Feel free to ask me any questions concerning Twilight Town or college," Roxas said before he left. Kairi gave him a small wave of goodbye, happier to know that there were people like Roxas around this place.

After Sora punched her in the face with his harsh words, Kairi seriously wanted to back out on the whole note-taking thing and just never see him ever again. However, because he dissed her with his low expectations of her along with her guilt, her sense of duty to show him up overcame her desire to ditch him. Pride was indeed a powerful thing, and Kairi did not want to lose any she had left to the guy.

"Who does he think he is?" Kairi muttered under her breath the next day. Currently on her way to the cursed's class, she kicked a rock out of anger, only to regret her choice as her toes throbbed with pain. "Stupid skateboard. Stupid wrist. Stupid guilt. Stupid everything."

"Let's not succumb to such anger now, alright?"

Kairi turned around to see the one-and-only she had been cursing inside her head. His stupid eyebrow was raised once more, eyes questioning her rock kicking. With a hand in his shorts pocket, Sora and his laid-back attitude really threatened to set off a bomb inside of her.

"I'm not angry," Kairi smiled. Seeing her fake smile, Sora let out a _tsk tsk_ of disappointment before he went along his way towards class. Kairi reluctantly trudged behind him.

"At least look more convincing before saying that," he advised her. "Or else the mask won't work. Or was it supposed to work?"

"Is your mouth broken? Or was it supposed to talk this much?" she snapped back, causing Sora to chuckle in what seemed like victory. He slowed down so that they could walk side-by-side instead of her trailing him like a ghost.

"That's more like it," he cooed, knowing perfectly well that every word he said to her increased her pissed meter. "Another day, another unexpected encounter with you. You're actually more committed to this than I thought you would be."

"Please, I have a subconscious of a human too." Kairi gave up; there was no point in acting all smiley around him anymore when it obviously didn't work. She had no purpose appealing to him either—she was merely just in debt to him until his wrist got better. "Plus, it seems like you and and my sister are getting along _real_ fine."

"Oh yeah, we _definitely_ are. She's not ready to claw me with her eyes every time she lands them on me unlike somebody over here."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry that this person is villainizing you. But maybe there's a reason to it," Kairi said sarcastically. "There's always a reason to a purpose."

"And what did I say yesterday? I told you that you didn't have to come to my classes. I'm fine on my own," Sora said, bringing the topic back to the main matter. "Unless you really love my company. Like you said, there's always a reason to a purpose."

_God, this guy is really annoying_, Kairi thought bitterly to herself. _Too damn annoying._

"What class is it today?" she asked to avoid answering his question. It would be too lame of her to admit that he damaged her pride.

"Some virtual reality class. My ultimate favorite," he deadpanned, signaling how it was _not _his favorite subject. "It's for an elective."

"You don't like the subject?" Kairi asked curiously. To her, virtual reality was really cool, especially since it was on an ultimate rise with the whole Keyblading stuff that has been swarming around the world ever since its invention a few years back. She never went inside an arena before, but the stuff she saw on TV was enough to pique her interest. Sora sighed as he swung his arm across his chest to stretch a bit.

"Not my favorite. It's alright," he offered. "It's an easy grade." He remained brief about if; Kairi didn't question any further.

When they entered the lecture hall, they grabbed two seats in the back just like last time and waited for the professor to start the lecture. Kairi wordlessly gave him her hand, signaling him for the notebook, and wordlessly, Sora fished it out of his backpack and gave it to her.

"Maybe I'll actually understand at least twenty percent of what's going on this time," Kairi sighed more to herself than to him. He heard her, but he didn't say anything to it. Leaning back into his seat, Sora simply took out his phone and occupied his time with it.

"Hello class, welcome to a wonderful third day of the academic year," the professor announced into his mic. "Simply wonderful, isn't it?"

A few groans traveled throughout the hall, displeasure evident at the fact that another daunting year of college had began once more. "Before we get into lecture, I want to begin explaining why this course is, uh, _relevant_ to mainstream technology now since it wasn't as big decades prior."

The professor clicked on his remote, revealing the next slide in the powerpoint. All over the slide were animations and actual footages of Keyblading. Kairi was not surprised; the whole concept was based on virtual reality that revolutionized the use of it outside of games.

"I think we all know what these images are showcasing," the professor began. "And if some of you were ever lucky enough to beat the long lines to actually step foot into a Keyblade arena, you all know how realistic the things you see are. Sometimes _too_ realistic." He clicked to the next slide, showing a picture of him buried underneath a bunch of Heartless. The whole lecture hall laughed, including Kairi. She glanced to her side to see Sora unamused as he continued scrolling through his phone, not at all paying attention.

"I can't believe you're bored in this lecture too," Kairi scoffed. "Are you even a good student?"

"Honey, let's not base my entire intelligence on the fact that I'm not listening," Sora shot back sardonically. "Besides, does it look like anything he's saying is new information? Keyblading is keyblading; we all know what the gist of it is."

"I don't," Kairi muttered. "I'm not up-to-date with these things. I also didn't know they had creatures like that. What are they called, _Heartless_? And don't call me stupid pet names, please."

"Just the programmed enemies for the co-op version," Sora answered her, completely ignoring her request at the end. "It's for the people who don't wanna participate in the sport with the whole person vs. player thing. They're named a bunch of things: Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed."

"They all look the same to me," Kairi muttered as the professor coincidentally showed more pictures of the weirdly designed creatures. "Someone must have fun designing them."

"Sure," Sora sighed.

The professor then showed a video of a Keyblade battle, which Kairi winced at. The special effects with the magic spells and the whole arena layout with sliding floors and realistic lakes and deserts and whatnot intimidated her. All the Keybladers seemed so agile and flexible with their movements as they clashed and fought each other with their swinging Keyblades; it was amazing to her that all of it was actually a sport and not just some sort of virtual game.

The whole idea of it being real-time in the first place amazed her. The professor then began to give a short explanation about how the whole thing worked. A Keyblade arena wasn't actually virtual reality—it _was_ reality. Stemming its origins from virtual reality, advanced technology had made it possible to project holograms that could be touched physically when suited with the right equipment. Keybladers wore a thin suit underneath their attire that interacted with the arena, allowing them to jump on the programmed rocks and swim through the projected waters. The magic spells casted by the Keybladers were also holograms, but the suits could be adjusted to a certain percentage of pain, max being one-hundred percent for the perception of almost real physical pain. However, all the Keyblades were real—getting hit by one could result in actual injury, which is why Keyblading was known to be one of the most violent sports ever created. However, despite the risks involved with the sport, no one could drive away their eyes from the spectacular displays produced by these Keyblade arenas.

"And all of this is thanks to the brains behind Keywielders," the professor finished. "Hopefully that brief introduction was enough to attract all of you and prevent you from dropping this class. It is a class full of trial-and-error, but I do hope that all of you will be inspired by what Keywielders has given to us."

"Technology sure is amazing nowadays," Kairi said quietly, impressed about how this society has evolved now that it got presented to her. "I've never stepped foot onto an arena before." She forgot about her current position with Sora and started to get a little bit more chatty with him because of her amazement. Sora, who was still on his phone, simply gave a disapproving shake of his head.

"It's better if you don't, sweetie, or else you'll get completely shredded by the Heartless."

"Can't I adjust the effects of the arena on the suit? Also, please stop calling me the dumb names."

"Adjusting is adjusting, but actually being able to maneuver through the entire thing is something else," he said, once more ignoring her request. "Why do you think people have to sign waivers and shit before entering the arena? It's to prevent dumb injuries," he explained to her, speaking in a tone that made her feel like a baby learning the alphabet for the first time. "I honestly think the whole Keyblading concept is dumb—or at least the context of how its used."

"You speak like you know a lot about it," Kairi said with a roll of her eyes. Sora crossed his arms, unamused.

"You're the one who knows too little. Plus, it seems like you forgot that this is my domain we're talking about here along with everyone else's in this room. And what major are you?"

Kairi, who had had enough of the question, stiffened when he asked her. He noticed, but he didn't understand the harm to his question.

"I'm undeclared, so I'm sorry that I do not know much about your _domain_," she hissed, getting unusually more defensive about it than normal. She didn't mean to, but the question had been getting on her nerves as of late, and she could already feel the guy ready to ridicule her for it.

In response to her defensive answer, Sora held up his arms in surrender, blinking as he sat confused as to why she suddenly got so hostile over a simple question.

"It was just a simple question, alright? And undeclared, huh? Join the engineering department just like the rest of us here."

"... Join you?" Kairi blinked at him while Sora tilted his head to the side by the slightest, not sure as to how to approach her reaction. He swore he wasn't saying anything weird.

"I mean, it's severely impacted, but you can try."

"Please, why are you suddenly so nice all of a sudden? I'm not as smart as all of you guys to even think about applying," Kairi threw his suggestion out the window. She didn't know whether or not he even meant it, but even if he did, the whole idea sounded so farfetched to her that he might as well be joking anyway.

"You make it sound like I'm unconditionally mean to you," Sora scoffed. "I hope you know I only treated you the way I did because of your dumb laugh and your dumb smile."

"Excuse me?" Kairi hissed. The two of them were starting to get loud as the professor continued to lecture. Seeing how there was no point in him staying anyway, Sora sighed and signaled towards the door.

"If you wanna scream and yell at me, then get out first."

"Are you telling me you're going to skip?"

"Suit yourself if you want to stay," and without another word, Sora stood up and left the lecture hall. Kairi, astonished that he could just leave like that, hurriedly grabbed her bag along with his notebook and justled out towards the door.

"Hey, you can't just leave like that!" she called after him. "What are you doing?"

"I just did," he deadpanned. "I'm not going to start a circus show inside with you featured in it. It looked like you were about to explode at me. If you're going to explode, then do it outside here."

Kairi didn't know what kind of talent he had to make her feel so embarrassed about herself and her actions. She could feel her face match the color of her hair due to a mix of shame and anger. Every word he said sounded so snarky and _right_, making her feel like whatever she did in retaliation would just be lame and _wrong._ He stood, looking at her and anticipating her next move. It made her feel so self-conscious.

Not wanting to further the situation towards his advantage, she kept her mouth shut and stormed up to him. She slapped his notebook to his chest, once more not caring whether or not he caught it with his handicapped self. She didn't look him in the eye as she did so, gaze slightly downcasted as she quickly tried to make her escape. However, the moment she turned around to go towards the east direction, she felt her body spin back around as she felt a force hook itself on the crook of her elbow. In that instantaneous moment, the sound of whizzing air wooshed by her ear as her forehead smacked itself against something hard and cold and _painful_. When she opened her eyes, she didn't expect to see Sora's metal crown necklace in such fine detail. And when she took her first sniff, she wasn't expecting to smell something within the faint lines of male body wash.

"Hey, share the road!" Sora yelled after the rude bicyclist. "Ever heard of pedestrians?"

The bicyclist simply flipped the finger before pedaling faster off into the distance, leaving Sora to flip him back with his casted hand. His other still held onto Kairi, who continued to blink at his silver chain. He then sighed.

"And you."

Sora took a step back to give her some space, although he still held onto her arm. "Stop acting as if the entire world is out here to antagonize you." He sighed again when he took a look at her forehead; she had scraped it against one of the sharp peaks of his crown necklace. A little bit of blood seeped out the grazed skin. Finally, he let her go and shrugged off one strap of his backpack so that he could swing it around to the front. Opening the smallest pocket with a sharp zip, he took out a slim bandage. Since he couldn't elegantly open it up, he simply tore the top with his teeth and clumsily took it out the paper wrap. Kairi watched wordlessly as he gently brushed her hair out of the way and plastered the bandage across the place with the scrape. With his hulking cast, it was a bit difficult, but he still managed to get it on.

"Why don't you just act cute for once and stop being a bratty kid?" Sora continued to talk when Kairi didn't say anything. He gave her some space before reshouldering his backpack. "No one's out for your blood at this place—or at least most of the people aren't—so you don't have to have your claws out all the time. It feels like I'm taming some sort of wild cat."

"Don't compare me to a wild cat," she snapped. However, the fierceness in her voice was dampened immensely as she received a lecture from the same stranger for the second time. "You don't know a single thing about me. Please stop talking as if you do when we just began talking yesterday."  
"I don't need to talk to you more to know that you're projecting too much."

"And why am I listening and talking about my personal matters with a stranger like you?"

"Because this stranger is actually trying to be nice to you," Sora breathed, obviously getting super frustrated with the redhead. He usually kept his cool, but this girl kept back-talking so much that he was ready to lose this argument just so that he could get her to shut up. He ran a hand through his hair, not wanting to put up with it anymore for the day. He swooped down towards the ground to grab his notebook, also taking the time to not appreciate how she kept throwing things at him when he had a dumb broken wrist. He had not complained about it before, but that was going to change. "And please, I know it's my wrist and not yours, but does it hurt to remember that I have an actual injury here? Stop shoving things at me expecting that I'm going to catch it, 'cause I won't."

Sensing how Sora was getting actually upset with her with the way his tone changed drastically, Kairi shut up and clenched her jaw tightly. Warped in her emotions, she was unable to see _any_ time where he was nice to her. _He has been bullying me ever since we've met._

"And for some reason, I can _still_ read your mind just by the look on your face," Sora said, disappointment lacing his every word. "Fine. Think what you want. I'm serious about one thing though—I don't need your company in my classes. You don't have to force yourself to be with someone who antagonizes against you so much, right?"

Kairi didn't get to answer because before she could open her mouth to formulate any syllables, he had already brushed past her without looking back.

* * *

HellOooO! Another day another chapter c: This chapter flowed relatively fast so not much time was taken to write it (so the purpose of me rewriting my story is going smoothly). Ty to **Aqua644**, **Star Girl 007**, and **Kairikh3** for reviewing my previous chapters! I am glad some of my old readers have seen this remake and are following it c: Hope I don't disappoint you all with this rewrite haha.

Enjoy, enjoy~


	5. cup of tea

_Because this stranger is actually trying to be nice to you._

Kairi blankly rolled her pencil back and forth on her desk as she stared at her laptop which had only an empty tab opened. The first weekend of college finally arrived, and Kairi had no other plans other than have a gray cloud hanging over her head. Week 0 of college was over, and Kairi was proud to say that she had started her college experience with a foul mood.

"All Namine's fault," she muttered to herself as she blamed most of it on her sister.

_You're projecting too much._

Kairi slammed her forehead onto her table, letting out an anguished groan as she failed to keep the jerk's words off of her mind. It was as if he had cast a magic spell on her—a spell that activated to correct her thinking and realize the wrongs of what she thought was right. She felt embarrassed, honestly, to have someone who barely knew her to just point out her flaws right in front of her face. It was a Saturday; she had two days to decide whether or not she was still going to go see him during his lectures.

_Damn it._

Kairi brought her head back up and grabbed her phone to scroll through and keep her mind off of what happened yesterday. She wish she didn't.

On the top of her newsfeed was a picture she did not want to see. She instantly closed the social media app and wondered why she bothered to check; she had no one she wanted to be updated with anyway. If she didn't think about the possibility of meeting new people in Twilight Town, she would've deactivated all her accounts by now.

"You're stupid, Vanitas," Kairi mumbled to no one as she stood up from her chair and stretched her legs. Of course, Sora's comment about projecting popped back up in her head, making her feel exponentially worse every time it did so. "Stupid jerk, stupid wrist."

She sighed.

"Stupid me."

Feeling hungry, Kairi used that as an excuse to get out of her suffocating single room. Maybe her college social life would've been off to a better start if she had roomed with someone. However, she quickly denied the thought; she didn't want the potential roommate-gone-wrong fiasco that she had heard about so many times from others. Grabbing a light jacket for the summer night, Kairi went on her way to escape the confinements of her room.

Under normal circumstances, she would've hung out and got some dinner with her sister. However, she really needed some time alone—or, rather, some time away from the things that were familiar to her. She walked aimlessly off campus, which took a while since the campus was so big, and allowed her instincts to go through the bustling city as the sun spread its red and orange rays throughout the slowly-darkening skies. As she saw twilight coming to greet the skies, she understood why Twilight Town was given its name.

It was just really beautiful.

Strings of light hung around lamp posts and trees, illuminating the streets as if the holidays had come to greet the pedestrians. The trains from the distance hooted their horns, engulfing almost the entire city in its loud ruckus. The loud chatters of everyone, whether it be mother to son, vendor to customer, or schoolmate to schoolmate—they all rang harmoniously with each other despite being all out of sync. It gave Kairi a feeling of peace. It meant that she could also be out of sync with everyone yet still seem to fit in.

She didn't know how long she walked—she assumed that she was far from campus considering how there were no signs of the college being near anymore—but she managed to arrive at the center of the particular square she was in. In the center stood a beautiful fountain, and mounted on top of the peak of the fountain was an engravement of some sorts. Getting closer, Kairi squinted her eyes slightly to see what it said.

_Welcome to Twilight Town, a place where all your destinations come together._

"_Pfft_, how cheesy," Kairi chuckled to herself, wondering who the hell came up with such a saying. It made it seem like everything she could ever ask for could be found here.

_Yeah, right._

Kairi rolled her eyes, finding the whole thing ridiculous, before walking past it and focusing her eyes on places she could actually eat at. Her mission to find a place got interrupted once more when someone called her attention

"Kairi?"

She turned her head towards whoever called her, only to be met with surprised.

"Oh, it's you," she dumbly slipped out. _What was his name again? _"Roxas."

"For a second there, it looked like you forgot my name," he mused. Roxas glanced by her sides and Kairi did the same; it seemed like both of them were cruising through the square alone. "Watcha doing, wandering around here alone?"

"I could ask the same for you."

"I've lived here almost my entire life; it shouldn't be too weird to see me lounging around here and there throughout the city," Roxas chuckled. "You stick out more. You're out in a new place alone."

"Just wanted to grab some stuff to eat that wasn't on campus, that's all," Kairi answered simply, amazed that he decided to stand here amongst the crowd and converse with her instead of just merely greeting her with a wave and walk along his way. "Although I'm not sure what's good to eat around here."

"What did I say about feeling free to ask me questions regarding these types of things?" Roxas said, an eyebrow raised quizzically. "It doesn't hurt. I'd be happy to give you some starter tips around here."

"Forgot. Didn't cross my mind," Kairi admitted. It was more like she didn't expect to find a potential friend in the guy. She stuffed her pockets into her jacket, looking around the shops that bordered the sides of the streets in two long rows. "You know anything good around here then?"

Roxas nodded eagerly and pointed a finger towards a general direction. "I was actually on my way to catch some grub too. Ey, you saved me from a meal alone. Celebrate the first weekend of college, right?" The last part was a joke, but Kairi didn't catch it and sighed. Then, she gave him her usual bright smile—one that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Yup. Let's celebrate."

She didn't mind having Roxas tag along; it made her lack of a social life less depressing. Also, he seemed like a really nice guy too, and talking to him wasn't bad. He was a natural talker anyway, which filled the awkward gap between their conversations due to Kairi's inefficient social skills.

"This place is like _the_ it-place," Roxas explained as they neared their destination. "Your weekends can never be truly completed without finishing your Saturday night chowing down on Aerith's cooking. It is legit the best place on Earth. If this place isn't your go-to, then you can't call yourself a Twilight resident."

"You're really hyping me up," Kairi laughed lightly. "Is it that good?"

"Take a bite and find the answer yourself," Roxas grinned. He then turned and opened the door to a place called "Aerith's Joint" for her. "Come on in."

People were legit swarming the place as the line wrapped around the walls of the room and nearly out of the door just to be seated. Almost every seat was taken, and the chattering seemed to intensify by two-fold compared to the outside streets. Kairi had to take off her jacket; all the food and the people really made the place warm and cozy.

"It's popular," she stated, eyeing the food people were eating to get a sense of what this place served. She was met with a variety of food, some she had seen before and others she had not. Heck, she even saw a paopu fruit dish, something that was native to Destiny Islands.

"It's a melting pot here," Roxas said as he led her to the line. "Both the food and the people. Aerith, who is the owner of this place, traveled a lot during her younger days, so she knows how to cook foods from all the six Worlds. Of course not _everything_, but it does strike home for people who come and reside here."

"It's a really unique place," Kairi smiled. It truly was homey in here with the artifacts and paintings displayed, things that Aerith probably obtained during her travels. In the Destiny Islands section of the place, intricate paintings of all their cultural values were hung.

"Feeling homesick?" Roxas chuckled. Kairi let out a hum as she gently shook her head.

"Not really."

"What a strong heart. Usually freshmen get emotional by the end of Week 0 when the weekend settles by." Roxas peeked above the heads of the people in line in front of them and sighed. "I didn't expect it to be this packed." Then he saw how most were people their ages. "These kids probably heard about this place too."

"Kids? We're only two years younger than you, pal," Kairi said with a roll of her eyes. "How long does it usually take?"

"Judging by the line, it'll probably take—"

"Roxas—!"

"Roxas!"

Both Kairi and Roxas had to do a whole 360-swivel of their heads to spot the two sources that called out the blond's name. Then, from both the right and left, two people stood up to call for Roxas once more. However, when the two saw each other, their attention was taken away from Roxas and put on each other.

"Xion?"

"Riku?"

"Guys?" Roxas blinked, a bit surprised to see the gathering of his two friends in the same in the same place. Rather, it had been a long time, really, since he saw Xion and Riku together. _Too long. _He then looked at who were at the two tables. Sitting with Xion was Axel, and sitting with Riku was…

_Sora._

"What the hell, my mans!" Axel exclaimed excitedly as he stood from the table. "What the, we were sitting behind each other the whole time! If only it weren't for this divider!" Riku stared at both Xion and Roxas awkwardly. He gave Axel a look, which he only returned with a wink. Axel clearly knew how the air would turn stale real quick, but didn't do anything to change it too much besides being himself. Riku then gave a side glance over to Sora, who calmly just drank his tea. It looked as if he didn't even see what was happening right now. However, he began to grow perturbed when he saw Kairi cluelessly standing next to Roxas as the small reunion of "friends" happened. When Kairi met his eyes, she swore her weekend couldn't get any worse.

_Out of all the times I see him, I see him now?_

"Uh," Roxas awkwardly let out, not sure on what to do. Seeing how she was holding him back, Kairi faked a smile and signaled for him to go towards his friends.

"You can go with them if you want. Thanks for showing me the place."

"But—"

"Silly, we can make room! Just remove this stupid plastic divider, and we can combine our tables!" Xion suggested animatedly as she began to fold the divider. "It's been a while since we all got together like this. It's a Saturday night—it's perfect!"

Riku shot Axel a delirious look, which Axel sheepishly gave back with a small grin.

"Bro, stop this madness," Riku mouthed.

"Bitch, it's too late," Axel mouthed back.

The two continued to send looks to each other until Sora subtly kicked Riku underneath the table. However, just because it was subtle didn't mean it wasn't hard.

"I'm not blind," Sora deadpanned to Riku. "I understand you guys are dying to give each other love signals, but—"

"Sora," Riku began to protest the idea. He knew that it was going to end up a mess, even though it was far from looking like one. Sora just sighed before he stood up and helped Xion push the two tables together.

"Sora, it's been a while," Xion giggled. "How've ya been?"

"Just fine," he gruffly answered before grabbing his chair and sitting himself next to Axel. Everyone seemed to freeze in time as they watched the uninterested Sora take out his phone and busy himself. Roxas snapped out of it and laughed nervously to Kairi.

"Sorry," he apologized. Kairi shook her head.

"It's okay, I actually don't have to join you guys. Let me just grab a table by myself and—"

"We already made some space. Come join us," Xion insisted. She patted the seat next to her, which was next to some very intimidating red-haired guy with green eyes. Kairi gulped, not feeling comfortable sitting at a table with a whole bunch of strangers. However, when Xion kept insisting, Kairi didn't want to ruin the mood and forced a smile.

"Sure. Just for a bit."

"You can leave anytime you want," Roxas whispered to her. Kairi weakly continued to smile before nodding.

"Yeah, thank you."

Kairi sat next to the guy named Axel and tried her greatest to avoid Sora's gaze. She could just feel the intensity of his eyes, even if he simply just glanced at her from time to time. By the looks of it, Roxas and him were in the same friend circle.

"So what's your name?" Xion asked.

"Kairi," the redhead answered.

"She's a classmate I met in my anthropology class. We have the same discussion too," Roxas explained, happy to introduce the redhead to his friends. "She's a freshman, so she's new around here."  
"Nice, where are you from? I'm Axel, by the way," the flamehead introduced himself to her. "We can be brothers and sisters, dude!"

"What?" Kairi let out, confused. In response, Axel ran a hand through his locks, emphasizing the color.

"Red, the red! We're a rare species, don't you think? Let me guess where you're from. Most of the people with red hair originate from Radiant Garden… You from Radiant Garden?"

"My great-grandmother was," Kairi said, surprised that he knew the origins of her red hair. "I'm personally from Destiny Islands."

"Nice."

Kairi could already feel her social energy just _draining _down the sink by the second. Kairi's face started to hurt by how much she was smiling to these strangers. She made eye contact with everyone except Sora, which was easy since most of his face was blocked by Axel's huge build next to her.

"Well, I'm Xion!" the raven-haired greeted cheerfully. Kairi shook her hand.

"You look quite familiar," Riku finally said after he couldn't figure out where he had seen Kairi from. "I keep thinking you're the redhead we bumped into the other week…" Before Kairi could confirm that she was indeed the girl that broke his dear friend's wrist, he shook his head and smiled. "N'aw, probably another girl. You seem a lot more friendlier than her. She was feisty, wasn't she, Sora?"

Sora laughed lightly, earning the surprise of everyone in the table. They hadn't exactly expected anything more than a slight smile from him.

"Sure," was all Sora said.

"I'm Riku," the silver-haired finally introduced himself as he stuck a hand towards Kairi. Kairi grudgingly gripped his hand and really forced the smile on this time.

"I'm Kairi." She knew Sora was mocking her in his mind. She didn't need to see him to know—she could _feel_ it. Kairi's spotlight was over once all the introductions were done. Sora didn't even bother exchanging any greetings with her and simply made himself comfortable with his phone, something Kairi didn't quite understand. His eyes seemed to always be on his phone, whether it be in lecture or at a friend gathering like this.

_Who cares._

Kairi said a small thank you when Roxas handed her a menu.

She didn't even get to read it when Sora reached over to her side and slipped it right off her hands. He tossed it over to the left at Axel before standing up and hauling her up by her hood, getting a squeal of complaint from the redhead.

"Alright, I'm tired of playing the smiles game," he droned, voice straight and monotonous. "Catch you later, guys. And you," he narrowed his eyes at Kairi, "You're coming with me."

"Wait, I just came here," Kairi stuttered, grabbing back her hood. "I want to get something he—"

"It doesn't have to be here. C'mon."

Kairi's complaints died in her mouth as she found herself getting pulled hopelessly by her hood. She decided to just play along; she didn't want to start arguing with him when there were so many eyes on them.

"Aw, are you really that busy?" Xion's voice resonated across the table before the two left completely. "We haven't had fun with everyone in a while. Stay just for a while, hm?" Kairi swore she saw Sora's body freeze just for a second before he turned his head and gave Xion a half-assed moment of eye contact and a smile, which Kairi knew didn't meet his expression.

"I'm quite busy. Maybe next time."

And he left.

"Thanks for showing me this place. I'll definitely try it next time," Kairi thanked Roxas quickly as she eyed Sora's quickening footsteps. Roxas smiled weakly.

"Of course."

Kairi pushed past the doors and caught up to the spiky brunet despite the busy lines of people brushing past her shoulders. She didn't hide her annoyance as she gave him a slap on the back of his shoulder.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Sora lazily glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't expect you to actually follow me out."

Kairi dropped her jaw. _Are you kidding me?_

"Sir, I would like to kindly remind you that _you _were the one who _manhandled _me out of there! Now I'm out here and—"

"Well, am I 'manhandling' you now?" Sora shot back. He let out a low sigh and continued on his way, not caring whether or not Kairi followed him. She obviously was not done with him as she struggled to keep up with him.

"Don't tell me I was just your ticket way out of that situation." Kairi spluttered, putting two-and-two together. A sarcastic smirk graced his lips, easily setting an angry fire inside of her.

"No, 'course not. I wanted to have dinner—just the two of us," he said jokingly yet darkly. "So that I can look at your absolutely _genuine _smile all night long." His smile dropped immediately when he turned away from her and faced back forward. "Also, you didn't fit in there anyway. It's better for you out here than in there."

"Why? You don't like the idea of me hanging out with your friends?" Kairi unintentionally let out as snarky. "They seemed like real nice people; you seemed like the only sour one there."

"Don't say anything when you don't know anything," Sora snapped as he climbed a bunch of stone steps that lead to another part of the gigantic plaza. He started to walk even faster, which annoyed her greatly.

"Look," she quickened her steps to and blocked him from finishing the last step of stairs. He raised an eyebrow at her once more, one leg propped onto the last step as Kairi towered above him slightly. Even with the height advantage, Kairi still met him at eye-level. "I really don't appreciate your comments about me since—"

"I don't know a single thing about you, right?" Sora interjected. Kairi tightened her lips into a thin line while the edge of Sora's mouth tilted upward in an annoying smirk. "I have no intentions of wanting to either, if that's what you're trying to argue for."

"That is _not_ what I'm trying to do," Kairi stuttered, quickly offended by his suggestion. Her clumsiness made her awkwardly fumble with her feet as she scooted to the side to make more room for the people passing by the stairs. "You keep twisting my words."

"And you keep twisting my intentions. Fair game."

"And what _are _your intentions?"

"Glad to know that you're actually asking questions now instead of assuming things."

Sora didn't even ask to move her as he nudged her by the arm to push her out of the way. Just like that, the height advantage she had over him disappeared as he left her behind again. Seeing how he was not budging with her interrogations, Kairi hopelessly admitted defeat and wondered when she'll ever win an argument against someone like him. _I really don't like him. _

Negative thoughts eventually led her to think about how college seriously wasn't off to a good start. It could've been worse since college itself wasn't just packed with fun but also with stress, but she would've liked for her first week to leave a better impression than the one she had now. Seeing how it was hopeless to just chase after Sora—she still had some dignity to not just tail him—she settled on sitting at one of the public benches that lined the walkway of the plaza. Sure, she was still hungry, but now she just kind of wanted to sit and watch the sidelines. Who knows—maybe the townspeople's joy can light her up for a bit.

"Maybe I do project too much," she muttered to herself, a little bit of her warm breath visible as it mixed with the cold air. "But where do I stop?" It was hard, honestly, to fix a deeply-ingrained mindset and find a new way of thinking. She didn't know where to begin; her emotions got to her too quickly before she could sort them out reasonably. She thought about her recent fallout with Namine and her unagreeable interactions with Sora; there must've been a trend in all of this.

"I like you better like this. Actually thinking."

She looked up, expression remaining unchanged as Sora's figure stood in front of her. His eyebrow was slightly raised, showing a small amount of amusement at her contemplation. While she regarded him in the same manner, Kairi was taken aback to see him here.

"You came back," she stated simply. Her eyes followed his figure as he sat next to her, hands cozy in his pockets. He huffed a large breath as he leaned all the way back on the bench, eyes looking at the darkening skies.

"What can I say, I cooled down," he admitted. "The cold does that to you." He looked over at her, his wonder clear on his face. "I guess you've cooled down enough too, considering how you're just sitting here."

"I would've been sitting in a warmer place too if I didn't get hauled by the hood to get out," Kairi mumbled, a lot less aggressive than before. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled painfully. Even Sora heard it amongst the noise of the plaza.

"Sorry," he offered. It didn't sound too genuine, but amongst all her past conversations with him, this one was the best one yet. "Had my own reasons."

"Not getting along with certain people?" Kairi dared to ask. She had noticed how he had not engaged in the interactions in the table as happily as she thought he would with his friends. "You must love your phone a lot."

"It offers me entertainment. How could I not have my eyes on it?" Sora said. Kairi noticed how he purposely did not answer her question, but she let it go. "Anyways, how long are you planning on sitting here?"

"I don't know," Kairi answered. She didn't say much more; she was too tired to explain her thoughts and actions, especially to a person who she doubt would care.

"You sound a little bit lost there," he chuckled. Thinking that he was going to somehow offend her again, Kairi was ready to give him some backlash, but she remained quiet when he finished his thoughts. "It's okay, I am too."

"I wouldn't expect you to say something like that," Kairi teased. "I was expecting another insult."

"I do not insult; I speak truth," he retorted. "Seems like it's getting to you though, huh? Glad to know you aren't a complete airhead."

"Something remotely nice is coming out of your mouth for once—if that's even considered nice."

"And you're not bitching at me for once. I can say nicer things when you don't throw tantrums," then he threw her a smirk, "If you're interested, that is."

There wasn't anything special behind his words, but for some reason, Kairi felt a bit warmer than usual. As a result, she just blurted stupid things out her mouth.

"Stop flirting with me; it doesn't suit you."

He gave her a quizzical look, not expecting that one.

"Aren't you bold? Your hungry stomach is getting to you in more ways than one. C'mon, let's go." He stood up, obviously tired of just lazing around by a public bench. Naturally, Kairi followed his actions, eyebrows furrowed together.

"Go? Where?"

"I only drank tea," he deadpanned. "I'm just as hungry as you are. Spending my Saturday night with you was not the plan, but I guess I'll just have to settle with counting how many fake smiles you'll flash at me tonight."

Too hungry to even fight back, Kairi accepted his company; she had no idea where to go anyway. Sora began walking, and she tagged close by his side so that she wouldn't lose him.

"You know where to go?"

"I'm a native here, so it'd be concerning if I didn't," Sora answered, weaving easily through the crowd while Kairi struggled to avoid the shoulders of passing people. "Roxas showed you a nice place, but there's another place that's a lot less rowdy and just as good that I know of."

"What a small world. You know Roxas well?"

A pause that Kairi didn't take too seriously.

"Not really."

"Is this place expensive?"

"Don't worry about it."

When they entered a clearer space, Kairi overpassed him and shot him a look. He returned it with a questioning one as they continued walking.

"Are you implying something here?"

"What are _you _implying?" Sora threw back.

"Are you paying for me?"

"Think of it as an apology for using you as a ticket way out and as a welcome gift to college, freshman," he simply said, unfazed by all her questions. "Don't get any funny ideas." He was referring back to her bold statement from earlier.

"It's a habit of thinking, sorry."

"Excuse me? It's a habit for you to assume all guys are flirting with you?" he laughed, honestly finding the issue hilarious. "Sounds like being pretty is a hassle. What a first-world girl issue."

"There seriously are some shady guys out there. Sorry for being hypersensitive," she snapped, but it was more out of embarrassed defense than anger. If anything, she took his comment as a compliment—he indirectly admitted that she was pretty.

No, if anything, she was pleasantly surprised that they weren't barking at each other with each sentence they exchanged. He was nicer than she thought.

_Because this stranger is actually trying to be nice to you._

Maybe he really wasn't lying.

* * *

Here is an update~ (Only because I had this chapter written already a long time ago and only found some time to finish the last part). I have exams coming up so this was a nice breather to relax from all the stress xD Thanks for all the reviews (and those who reviewed my oneshot that was posted a few days ago). Even though I don't reply, it's cause I'm awkward lol like should I be replying to reviews?! I'll get to it when the support is overflowing and I just have to thank all of you hehe. Anyways, hope this chapter was awesome!


	6. Chapter 6

Sora scoffed in disbelief with crossed arms as he looked at the sight in front of him. He had put down his fork fifteen minutes ago, yet he surprisingly wasn't out the door yet. No, there was something preventing him from booking it and calling it a day, much to his complaining wearisome body. It was a cold, cold day—his bed had been unattended for far too long.

"Wait, this stuff is good," Kairi said across from him with an unlady-like mouthful. Sora flinched in disgust when he saw something fly out of her mouth when she spoke. The redhead was completely unaware of his disapproving glare as she scarfed down her _free_ food. Under normal circumstances, she would have eaten in a more _elegant_ manner, but considering how her company's mouth would've jumped on the opportunity to call her out on the unnecessary formalities, she just dug right in.

"Can't you just…" Sora's eye twitched when he saw the way her cheeks were practically inflated, "Eat slower?"

"You just told me five minutes ago to eat faster," she countered. This time, a larger chunk of food threatened to spill out of her mouth. Sora couldn't have witnessed anything more disgusting with the way she sucked it back in her mouth and gave herself a hum of victory.

"What are you, a frog?"

"I think frogs are pretty cute, if you ask me. I'll take it."

"Please, don't. I don't intend to compliment," Sora sighed as he rested his free hand on his face and waited for Kairi to finish. A hint of a smile played at his lips though, something she spotted but did not comment on. She didn't need to worry about any of the empty words he spat out of his mouth. Even with his complaints about her eating, he didn't say a thing when she ordered more things, so the fault was on himself for being stuck here.

From the back corner, one of the workers emerged from the counter after cleaning up and went up to their table. Sora let his body be shaken as the friendly hand patted him on the shoulder as a greeting.

"Sora, boy, you're not one to stay after the hours, ey?"

Kairi gave a glance at the middle-aged man, who had a nearly burnt-out cigarette balanced between his lips and a rag in his other hand, before returning back to her plate. She ate slower and more neater under the presence of another.

"Sorry about that. Maybe you should've given me the tab earlier, Cid. Who knows, you might've seen me head out the door an hour ago," Sora grunted in annoyance.

"And why would you want that, you rascal? I would love to stay a couple more hours if I were ya—the pretty company is always worth the darnest trouble. Girlfriend?"

Kairi awkwardly took a swig out of her water as she waited for Sora to correct the guy; a male and female just couldn't eat a simple dinner together nowadays.

"Does it look like I'm having a romantic evening with the wine glasses and swan-folded napkins? I don't think a burger joint is the best place to have a date, even with pretty company," Sora scoffed. Cid let out a hearty laugh, obviously familiar with Sora's bitey remarks.

"Anything's a date when you see Hikari out here with actual company. A girl no less. The name's Cid," he wiped a hand on his pants before offering it to Kairi, "I'm the owner of this dingy joint. Nice to see someone enjoy the fam's secret sauce."

"O-oh." She looked around for a free napkin, which Sora offered to her. Kairi hurriedly wiped her hands clean from the oil on her fingers and firmly grasped the outstretched hand, "Kairi. Please, this place isn't dingy. Great homey feel to it with great food."

"Glad to hear you enjoy it. Since Sora here's a regular lone wolf around here, take all the time you need. I got extra cleaning up to do today anyway—seems like school's back in the calendar, ey? Bunch o' younglings out and about again."

"Business is back to boom for you," Sora rolled his eyes. "Tab would be appreciated." Cid clicked his tongue at the him with a wink before he reached over to the counter, slid the bill on their table, and went back to cleaning up the place for the night. Finally being mindful that they were the last customers at the joint, Kairi quickly finished up her food. She glanced at the bill, a bit taken aback at how expensive a meal combo was.

Sora awkwardly fumbled with his wallet with his uninjured hand and plastered a few bucks on the receipt. "He calls the place dingy, but Cid's Joint is an infamous name around here in Twilight Town," he explained, seeing how Kairi caught the price. "It's just that it's farther from campus and gets less buzz, so Aerith's place gets all the hype."

"And you like to go here often, hm, Rich Boy?" Kairi hummed in question. "Sounds like you often go alone."

"Less noisy," was all he offered. When he stood up, Kairi followed as they headed out the door. He held it open for her as she stepped foot back into the cold autumn night. She unintentionally let out a shiver, which he spotted. "Destiny Islands blood can't stand the Twilight cold?"

"What, you going to hand me your jacket or something? Of course, I'm cold—people underestimate how warm it is back in the islands all the time," she snapped, hot air instantly pooling out between her lips and into the cold. When she realized how she was suddenly being bitchy again, she quickly muttered an embarrassed "sorry."

Sora noticed how she was trying and chuckled. "I was just kidding. I share the same cultural blood. You'll get used to it."

"You're from Destiny Islands too? Explains the permanent tan. But you said you were a native here?"

"I think I have the right to claim native once I've lived here for ten years," he said. "I moved." His voice sounded a bit more distant, but he quickly changed the topic before Kairi could catch it. "Which do you prefer?"

"Prefer what, place? Dude, I've only been here for a week—of course, I'd prefer home right now."

She swore she wasn't saying anything funny, but Sora kept on chuckling at everything she was saying.

"You'll convert soon."

Kairi heard clothes shuffling as she walked and was not expecting him to actually take her seriously and throw his winter coat over her. Asking for him to nicely put it around her shoulders instead of throwing it over her head was too much to ask.

"Who are you and what have you done to the asshole I was talking to just a few hours ago?" she questioned dubiously. Their interactions were way too pleasant to be real, considering how they were ready to bite each other's heads off back at Twilight Plaza. Nevertheless, she slipped her arms through his jacket and comfortably made it her own for the next hour. "Didn't know you had the politeness to offer a maiden your jacket."

"I'm telling you; I'd be nicer if you weren't so plastic all the time." It was Sora's turn to shiver slightly as a light wind breezed by against his turtleneck. His jacket had a better use with Kairi though; the girl couldn't stop her bones from rattling even with the additional warmth.

Kairi sniffed at his jacket. It was nice to know she was putting on hygienic clothes, not that she doubted his hygiene. _He smells fucking nice_. "Excuse me, plastic?"

"You know those dolls that sit there on the shelves smiling at you? Yeah, they're you."

"Nicer? Your mouth sounds the damn same. Here, take your flipping jacket back."

"Funny—I don't see you taking it off."

Kairi thought about something that had been on her mind all night for a moment as they walked back to his parked car. She wasn't planning to act on it, but with so much compiling evidence coming by the second, it was hard to keep her impulsive thoughts to herself. Once she gathered the boldness, she took a small step ahead and stopped right in front of him. He played along and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for what her own mouth had to say to him. She poked a finger at his chest accusingly.

"You're definitely flirting with me. Are you interested?"

Obviously, Sora was not expecting her to say something so blunt again. He stared at her silently as she stared back. Her blue eyes reflected the light of the lamp post, so it made it awfully harder to look away. The same could be said for Sora, whose cobalt eyes locked onto hers rather fiercely, whether he intended to or not. Kairi wanted to regret the words she blurted with the way a brief yet very uncomfortable silence met their paths, but her womanly instincts could not stop ringing all night long as she spent time with the mysterious young man—it needed to be quelled.

"Well," Sora took a hand to push her accusing finger away. She let it drop back to her side. Just one word was enough to signal the change of atmosphere. "Let's not play thought police one-sidedly here."

"_1984_. A classic."

"I could argue otherwise."

"You were such a rude ass this entire week. What's up now?" she returned to the subject at hand when he tried to divert away from it. Something was definitely up in the air now, and it almost choked Kairi as her heart involuntarily started to beat faster. The burger was definitely giving her some sort of kick of courage. What did Cid put in there? She was going to investigate what was in the secret sauce one day.

"Didn't know enjoying someone's company when they're actually being real could be such a crime," he said, as if stating the obvious. "Not to toot your horn or anything, but you're actually decent when you aren't a doll up in those shelves."

"I've met enough people to know when it's just more than simple company."

Sora chuckled a bit. Kairi really didn't get it: she wasn't intending to be funny.

"And I have a handful of friends actually. Word gets to me," Sora stepped closer, catching Kairi off guard. She did not like the way he twirled her hair with a finger; it was as if he was toying with her. However, she wanted to be resilient as she gave him a challenging brow. "They tell me a little bit of these so-called interactions you might be quite familiar with."

"Get to the point?"

"I could arrest you too, if we're going to play this game." He then slipped a hand underneath her hair to cup her cheek. She winced at his hand—it was cold. "I think the reluctant party wouldn't be questioning anything if they weren't interested. Isn't it girl code to just walk away when a creep's on your tail?"

"Oh, so you know you're a creep." Kairi really tried to save herself because what he said was the horrifying yet absolute truth, but Sora knew he scored it with the way he smirked and dropped his hand.

"I'm not looking for a relationship."

"Funny. I'm not either."

"Broken heart?"

"I am not going to answer that," she said hotly. Sora smirk grew bigger.

"No need. You already did. Alright, enough."

He let out a shudder—they had been standing out in the cold for far too long. Not interested to continue this game any longer, he brushed past her and went ahead towards his car. "What dorm do you live at?"

"Ruby Hall," she said grudgingly as she followed his steps. She hated it. She hated how he turned the whole situation around at her. And won. She was the one who asked the questions first, but for some reason, she became the one answering.

"My friend lived there. Nice single rooms. They're big."

"They are."

She was not into any of the small talk he initiated. The car ride back was mostly silent as she warily watched the way he maneuvered the car with one hand. She could tell that he was messing with her apprehension with the way he purposely made his grip on the steering wheel all shaky and unstable as he drove.

"Cat's got your tongue?" Sora said once they arrived in front of her dorms. He shifted the gear in park as Kairi unbuckled her seatbelt.

"What?"

"Guess the fire dies down at ten p.m., doesn't it? That'll change soon too. College does that to you."

Kairi was getting increasingly annoyed with the way he was just teasing her at this point. It wasn't even friendly teasing either; it was the type of teasing that screamed arrogance and victory.

"Something's in that secret sauce," was all she said between her teeth.

"After today, I think there is something in there too. I'll ask Cid what's in it for you."

"Good freaking night, you asshole," Kairi finally steamed, having been holding it in for the entire duration of the trip. "If I ever get hungry, don't invite me ever again. Got it?"

"Loud and clear," he laughed.

Kairi placed her hand on the handle, excited for the freedom outside of his car and away from his presence. Sora stopped her with a hand on her arm though when she was about to open the door and step out.

She turned to snap at him, only to be met with a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'll answer your invites though if you have any for me. You know my number," he said. The smirk never left his face. At this point, Kairi wanted to rip it off with her bare hands. "Don't keep me waiting, but I doubt I will have to." Kairi moved her mouth to question his audacity, but no words came out. She just stared at him in shock, processing what he just pulled on her, before she shrugged his grip off and kicked open the door.

"Thanks for the dinner," was all she managed to say as a response. She slammed the door closed, not caring if it hurt his car, and stalked off back into her dorms. She felt hot, despite how cold she felt earlier, knowing how he was watching her for a bit before his car zoomed off into the distance. Her impulsiveness made her march out of his car with his coat on still, and she knew he didn't say anything about it on purpose.

"He's playing me like a fucking chess game!" she yelled in her room. She threw her purse carelessly onto the ground and flopped onto his bed. She thought about why she even asked him that question in the first place, and she realized how she wouldn't have done anything different if she knew better. The way he smiled at her, the way he didn't outwardly deny any of Cid's allegations, the way he playfully bantered with her yet held cordial conversations with her, the way he laughed at everything she said, and the way he paid for her meal and gave him her jacket—all of it screamed interest.

The one thing she hated the most was his stupid clever mouth.

"Thought police? Ugh!"

She threw her blankets over her and huddled over to the wall, fuming with anger at how she completely fell trap to him today. But she couldn't blame herself; there was no way she could've prepared for the sudden character switch he had. He really wasn't lying when he said he would treat her differently if she was a bit nicer.

"Stupid." Huddled in her blankets, she could smell his jacket a bit more. It smelled of eucalyptus spearmint.

The comforts of her blankets were too much. Kairi accidentally fell asleep, painfully aware of the burning sensation on her cheek where he kissed her—even within her sleep.

In his apartment, Sora laid in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Opposite to Kairi, nothing much ran through his mind as the night's events quickly got overshadowed. He sighed before rolling over to his side. Checking his phone, he attempted to busy himself before he realized how fruitless it was and dropped it. His eyes traveled over to his dresser, where a bunch of wayfinders hung on the hooks. He glared at them before stopping—there was no use wasting anymore energy on it.

"I really should throw them away."

Sora stood up to unravel the strings connecting all the wayfinders together and unhook it from his dresser. He carelessly threw it into the trash by his desk and went back to his bed.

A minute later, he came back, took the wayfinders out the trash can, and hung them on his dresser once more.

* * *

Another update, yay! So obviously, the pace is picking up lol. Not sure how to feel about it, but let's roll! Hope everyone is safe out there during such a time :c Since I'm also just stuck in quarantine, I've been trying to chug out content to fill in my time while at the same time balancing my now-online classes lmaoooo Hopefully I can get to work on my other fic as well (writer's block has really halted its process since sept 2019) Hopefully during this time period I can think of more stuff to write! This is just a short chapter, but more to come soon! Hope y'all enjoyed. (Shall proofread and correct this chapter later cause writing this at 3 am is bound to have some grammatical/typo consequences lololol)


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